SHIFT

Young Programmers' film compilation on the theme of environment and climate change.

2019 film SHIFT produced by YAK Young Art Kommunity and CLIP Experimental Music & Sound Collective at Firstsite, Colchester working with films from the East Anglian Film Archive. The film conveys a sense of threat and time passing, and the need for change and for optimism. Archive film sequences (some played backwards) are accompanied by clips from the film soundtracks, again some played backwards, together with a composition including mechanical repetitive sound. These create a feeling of tension and unease, developing towards something more positive and hopeful. The archive films show ducks on a flooded river; a house collapsing; piles of caravans in floodwater; Police sign ‘road closed’; intertitle SURVIVE; a man drinks from a hip flask; same man drinks from a glass and image spins so he is upside down; a boy wearing flippers falls sideways into a swimming pool; a man wearing a suit and bowler hat, carrying briefcase and umbrella, stands on the roof of a moving boat; view over his shoulder of the river scene passing slowly below; on a hillside with sheep, a woman walks in high heels; hunting dogs are released from a kennel; a woman offers a treat to a pet dog, which paws her arm, as a man watches them; intertitle HEAL; more scenes of the woman and dog as the man walks past them; in a farmyard, a man chops wood with an axe, intercut with scene of the woman in profile walking slowly right to left; a flowing river; farmyard scene of a man feeding hens surrounded by haystacks (the sequence runs backwards so the grain returns to his hand); a handful of sand dropped into a beach of sand (played backwards); head of a man buried in sand; a seed germinating; seedlings sprouting from soil as in time-lapse cinematography; a bearded old man broadcast sowing (run backwards); intertitle INDEPENDENCE; the same old man speaking (run backwards); a crowd of people approaching the camera as if going to work; a woman dusting or polishing an ornament; a man packing a parcel; a welder in protective gear and a blazing furnace (flames run backwards); farmworker loading mangolds into a truck; chopped mangolds and other animal feed, run backwards so they return to the basket; a 1930s harvest scene with the sound of a threshing machine; a thatcher speaking; thatching work on cottage roofs; a man shovels deep snow, and sits eating a sandwich; intertitle FAITH; ‘how about a barbecue’ scene of a group of people eating sausages; a family group enjoying a fried breakfast served in the kitchen of a Norfolk Broads holiday boat; a woman holding a duckling; a dandelion clock against the orb of the sun or moon; intertitle TIME; light dancing on water; a person in a rowing boat amongst swans, with the sunset reflected in the water; THE END, credits sequence.

Keywords

Environment; Climate change

Intertitles

EAFA Catalogue Number 1989620 SURVIVE HEAL INDEPENDENCE FAITH TIME THE END Produced by Y.A.K (Young Art Kommunity) at Firstsite, Colchester Y.A.K Jude Bowden Jack Dempsey Jan-Alain Diaz Freya Gascoyne Li-Ting Hsia Chao Wang Darla Wilson Music composed by CLIP (Experimental Music & Sound Collective) at Firstsite, Colchester Jude Bowden Haydar Kafala Harry Woodman Films supplied by EAFA cat 9845 cat 1324 cat 1187 cat 45 cat 9498 cat 1799 cat 4088 cat 4131 cat 328 cat 4432 cat 2422 cat 81 cat 1025 cat 290 cat 163 logo - Firstsite logos - University of East Anglia / East Anglian Film Archive logos - The National Lottery / BFI / BFI Film Audience Network

Background Information

The film ‘Shift’ is a collaborative piece of work involving Firstsite’s Young Art Kommunity Art (YAK) and the East Anglian Film Archive. Film Hub North funded the film and project through their ‘Changing Times’ funding steam. Film Hub North were keen ‘to support a series of adventurous collaborations between exhibitors and archives that respond to one of the most important debates facing society today: people's changing relationship with their environment.’ EAFA worked with YAK, who curated the film and accompanying trailer using clips from a range of material in the film archive, and with Experimental Music & Sound Collective (CLIP). YAK were led by Beth Hull from Firstsite, and Clip were led by Frazer Merrick and Simon Keep from Firstsite. Produced by the Young Art Kommunity (YAK) at Firstsite, Colchester: Jude Bowden Jack Dempsey Jan-Alain Diaz Freya Gascoyne Li-Ting Hsia Chao Wang Darla Wilson Music composed and performed by Experimental Music & Sound Collective (CLIP) at Firstsite, Colchester: Jude Bowden Haydar Kafala Harry Woodman The film was screened on Thursday 30th January 2020 and artist and filmmaker Jevan Watkins Jones chaired a panel discussion following the screening. The group also produced a one minute trailer to promote the film - Cat 231753. The group were inspired by the Changing Times theme from the funder Film Hub North. ‘Shift’ uses archive material from the EAFA collection to explore the ideas of destruction caused by environmental change and change within the environment. They were interested in exploring the concept of polar opposites and the inaction shown by many people in society to climate change. Films used in this production supplied by EAFA: Cat 9845 c.1938 - 'The Sea Breaks Through' Cat 1324 Reedham, Norfolk, 1993 - '[Flooding of Reedham]' Cat 1187 Hemingford Grey, Cambridgeshire, 1998 - '[Floods at Hemingford Grey and Earith]' Cat 45 Felixstowe, Suffolk, 1953 - 'The Flood Disaster in Suffolk' Cat 9498 Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, 1950 - 'Cocktail' Cat 1799 Norfolk Broads, 1975 - 'Call Me Captain' Cat 4088 The Grand Union Canal, 1964 - 'The Prendergast File' Cat 4131 1965 - 'The Stray' Cat 328 Suffolk, 1936 - 'This Was England' Cat 4432 Buckinghamshire, 1934-1939 - 'Some Birds and Beasts' Cat 2422 Harlech, Gwynedd, 1934 - 'Sundown' Cat 81 Leiston, Suffolk, 1934 - 1935 - 'Farming in Winter' Cat 1025 Norfolk, 1983 - 'The Norfolk Coast' Cat 290 Norfolk Broads, 1957 - 'Norfolk Broads Holidays Afloat' Cat 163 Suffolk, 1936 - 'The Wheatlands of East Anglia' - Regional Geography (series 1) Cat 4059 South Shields, Tyne and Wear, 1979 - 'The Magic Sea'