Back in early 2020 when the world was a very different place, Highlights was involved in the beginnings of a project that would document real stories from real people in our home county of Cumbria.
Collaborating with Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal and theatre company imitating the dog, stories and voice recordings were collected from all over Cumbria – from Barrow to Brough, Carlisle to Kendal and the villages and towns in between. In March 2020, these were made into 5 short films by imitating the dog, each lasting between 2 to 12 minutes in length.
The project was originally planned as a walk-through gallery installation – a number of small houses (think doll’s houses!), with the films projected into the rooms, so that visitors could peer inside to see and hear the stories.
Now, after several re-schedules due to the pandemic, the project has moved online. In this new setting, each film will locate the original filmed footage and recorded audio in domestic situations: a cupboard, a bookshelf, a bedside table. Keeping with the miniature theme we see tiny characters acting out strange but familiar actions in these everyday locations.
All five episodes of STREET are available to watch below courtesy of the Brewery Arts Centre’s Youtube channel. There’s more information about the project on the Brewery Arts Centre’s website and you can check out some more of imitating the dog’s work, including their incredible re-mixing of George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead over on their website – https://www.imitatingthedog.co.uk/.
STREET
Take a walk through an ordinary house. If the ghosts of past inhabitants could be seen and heard, what stories would they tell? What actions would they replay? The inside of a kitchen cupboard is filled with the regrets of a grandmother, the bookshelves house the memories of a son. The furniture and walls of every room bursting with unnoticed life.
From the comings and goings of everyday life, stories emerge of arrivals and departures, life’s tragedies and joys, of loneliness and togetherness, of our differences and of the hopes and dreams which ultimately unite us.
Jean
“Hey Mr, do cats have souls?” 🐱 Sometimes it’s the small moments that stick with you forever. Watch Jean’s true story in the last episode of STREET!
Tilly
A story of growing up, of playing games and adventuring, of yearning for change, and realising all the good that’s around you.
‘As a child, a lot younger. It was freeing. You felt a lot safer.’
Keith
A story of space and magic, of finding something you love and running with it.
‘It’s great, you can just turn up in your normal clothes, chuck the cape on, and suddenly you’re transformed into a space travelling magician.’
Alex
A story of moving to Cumbria to experience the joy of finding space and time to slow down, of finding quiet beauty in a gorgeous landscape.
‘One thing I really love about living here is the sense that I’m just a drop in the ocean or the bat of an eyelash when it comes to time.’
Karen
A story of family and generations past, of hard work, and of the things we wish people got to experience and the conversations we never got to have.
‘When I used to ask her to tell me about her life she’d say ‘oh, hard, hard days, you don’t want to know about that it was hard’ which was a shame really.’
