News/Update from Fiona Evans, Project Co-ordinator

October - November 2007

The Living Memory Lab had it's official media launch in October with a Spotlight appearance and a week of narratives read on BBC Radio Devon. This provoked a really positive response to the project with lots of enquiries to join the lab as a budding film makers and volunteers. Thank you to our partners BBC South West.

Collective Voices joined us in October and produced some very interesting films for our collection as well as having a lot of fun! For those of your who don't know - Collective Voices is an exciting arts project based at the Barbican Theatre which enables young people from across the city to learn more about the arts and each other. Film subject matter included an abstract look at slavery of the past and today, a young person from Zambia retold the story of slavery illustrated through drawings, a poem which explored the feelings of being captured and an exploration of the slaves perspective through written accounts of slavery. A big thanks to Cletus Moisob (Plymouth Ghana Link) and David Oddie (ARROW) who provided the voices of eminent abolitionists. These creative contributions were screened at Black History Event at the Barbican Theatre on 24th October. Well done Collective Voices who were a treat to train.

The Living Memory Lab was present at this year's tenth Respect Festival. Despite the rain we had a very busy time and lots of interest in the project. Next year we shall be screening a sample of our 100 films for visitors to the festival.
In November we welcomed three more volunteer trainers to the lab. Jane Atwill from CSV Media, Marianne Blosche from Plymouth University and Theresa Brooks from Children's Services Plymouth City Council. These very capable volunteers shall be helping out on courses over the next couple of months. As part of their commitment to the project the volunteers produce their own films. Our volunteer trainers created shorts that touched on a real range of topics including the parallels between slavery and the experience of unaccompanied asylum seeker children in the city, the role of the Methodists and Quakers in slavery and abolition and a creative journey into slavery via the letters of the words itself (s l a v e r y).

Three schools have been chosen to work with the Living Memory Lab over the Winter months. Plymouth High school for Girls, Estover Community College and Lipson Community College will be producing features for the Living Memory Lab DVD. The schools have proposed a challenging range of subjects for features including the transportation of slaves and the similarities between that and the movement of refugees, tracing a modern Plymouthians family tree back to slavery and how Hawkins relates to modern society. I think these schools are going to make some really interesting programming.

On 24th November Human Cargo finished. The exhibition provided great inspiration for the Living Memory Lab. Future plans involve producing a slide show of the exhibits so that participants can still benefit from the exhibition.

At the end of the month the Plymouth and District Racial Equality Council course kicks off. This course which will run in the evenings gives staff the opportunity to produce their own films. The Living Memory Lab can run courses in the evenings for organisations who can't release staff during office hours. If you want to find out more about getting your organisation involved contact me on fiona.evans@bbc.co.uk.

Plymouth & District Racial Equality Council

3rd Floor, Prideaux Court, Palace Street, Plymouth, PL1 2AY

Tel:  01752 224555   Fax:  01752 220258   Email: enquiries@plymouthrec.org   Web: www.plymouthrec.org