Something different this week

Late last year, a local film-maker friend who had bought a copy of “Dreams of Amarna” said that it had revealed a whole new world to him, and he’d like to make a film about me and my work. To begin with it was going to be a standard documentary, with him doing the filming and me just being the subject, but then he realised just how difficult it would be to film the embroidery and painting that he wanted to under the constraints of our respective diaries. So apart from a couple of bits at the beginning and end, I became camerawoman as well as subject.

The film became a First in the annals of Swan Moviemakers, in that the direction happened entirely by email. Tony would ask questions, ask for footage of <something>, I would attempt to oblige, get it to him via some means or other, and we’d go around again. I found myself thinking quite hard about the whys and wherefores of what I do and how, in a more abstract way to the way I do it here on the blog, so I’m not sure how clearly I’ve expressed myself, or how much sense I make for anyone not involved with the art and craft of embroidery.

In the end, the film won two awards at Swan, and very definitely introduced the other members of the club to the idea that embroidery can be an art form and not “merely embellishment”. So that’s definitely a win.

It’s less than fifteen minutes long. I hope you’ll enjoy it too!