Client: private project
Agency: Neon Chameleon
Role: Directing | Cinematography | Photography | Editing | MGFX
Agency: Neon Chameleon
Role: Directing | Cinematography | Photography | Editing | MGFX
_Project
SHEroes of Lewisham is a project celebrating stories of an amazing women of Lewisham through poetry and visual art, led by a local poet and educator Laila Sumpton. Sparked by an extraordinary story of Rosa May Billinghurst - the “cripple suffragette” campaigner known for her relentless spirit in fighting for women right to vote, which seen her charging police officers on her tricycle using crutches in the process, being arrested multiple times and force-fed in prison and awarded by a Hunger Strike Medal of Valour after all – the SHEroes of Lewisham project explores modern-day life herstories full of struggles, bravery, wisdom, powering through racism, standing up for what’s right and exceptional relentlessness of 9 local women.
_Poetry
After selecting the SHEroes of the project through close consultations with local social enterprises, institutions, NGOs and community champions, Laila has learned their life stories through in-depth interviews. Those conversations were a starting point for authors tasked with creating poems encapsulating the spirit of each SHEroe. Poems were written by:
.Ella Frears
.Carmina Masoliver
.Year 5 students of Rathfern Primary School and Brindishe Manor School (both edited by Laila Sumpton, after workshops she led)
.Laila Sumpton
Each poeam has been carefully crafted through the process of repeated re-listening and re-imagining those very honest, at times tough, at times hilarious, and at all times massively inspirational and empowering interviews, during which Laila has managed to gain SHEroes trust and created an environment in which they’ve all could be both vulnerable and incredibly proud, sharing freely their deepest emotions.
_Visuals
Accompanying Laila was a visual artist Damian Wilk, who filmed the interviews, took the project SHEroes portraits and combined them with poems on a series of prints. The designs feature personalized, abstract soundwaves, which base-shape reminds simplified outlines of Lewisham borough, while outer lines are graphic sound representation of the exact moment when each SHEroe says her name. The touring exhibition comes complete with a series of video highlights from all 9 interviews, allowing the audience to dive deeper into all these extraordinary stories and find links of inspiration between poems and recorded conversations.
_Tour
The Exhibition will tour multiple places around Lewisham thorough March – April (see appendix poster) together with family workshops led personally by Laila Sumpton, during which kids will learn creative writing in a safe, empowering, and highly inspiring environment. All the workshops are free to attend to. All poems, photos, interviews and behind the scenes materials are available online www.instagram.com/sheroesoflewisham
