Moving Pictures is an innovative WOFFF project connecting older people and film in elder-care residential homes all around the UK.
We’ve loved touring the WOFFF shorts programme from Belfast to Tiree to London in cinemas, places of worship and community halls since we started touring in 2016.
We began hosting WOFFF film screenings in elder care homes in east London as part of Leytonstone Loves Film in 2019.
We planned more screenings for 2020 but then, COVID came along. So we went back to the drawing board and spent almost a year, with our partners, the Barbican, researching, designing and planning how we could safely continue these film events without visiting care homes in person
Now, all that dreaming and scheming is coming to life. Who knew DVDs would be the way to deliver COVID-safe, remote screenings!
What’s in the pack?
Each Moving Pictures pack comes with a DVD with 11 short WOFFF films, plus interactive writing and drawing activities for audiences to express and record their reactions to the films.
The DVD offers real flexibility as each venue is in charge of the time, place and duration of screenings. A screening can be two films, it can be ten! It’s entirely up to each care home how they use the DVD.
FIRST OUTINGS
In November Moving Pictures, our remote, mini film-festival, visited an elder care home in London and a homeless community centre in Glasgow.
In Walthamstow, elder care home residents watched two short films and wrote and drew their reactions to them.
‘U.G’ is an 86-year-old woman living with dementia. After watching The Witch and the Baby by Evgenia Golubeva, she designed this poster.
In Glasgow, a guest at Glasgow City Mission watched I am a Fellrunner by Jessie Leong and Julie Carter and designed this poster.
11 SHORT FILMS BY/ABOUT OLDER WOMEN
Each Moving Pictures DVD contains:
WOFFF welcome address and festival trailer | Various | 2021 | 5min
THE WITCH & THE BABY | Evgenia Golubeva | Russia | 2019 | 2020 | 5min
A Russian witch needs a baby for a spell to make her young again. But when she brings home an infant princess, things don’t quite go to plan.
BRONWYN GOES DANCING | Christopher T. Lang | UK | 2017 | Drama | 9min
Bronwyn’s becoming fearful, lonely and reclusive. Her only companion now is the radio.
I AM A FELLRUNNER | Jessie Leong, Julie Carter | UK | 2020 | Documentary | 4min
Fell running is rooted in the mountains of Cumbria, North West England. Through the words of her poem ‘I am a Fellrunner’, Julie Carter reveals how she is defined as a fellrunner in this place where she belongs.
GRANNY: NO PROBLEM LIKE MARIA | Jake “Maka” Phillips | Dominica, UK | 2018 | Documentary | 3min
Granny says Dominica was beautiful. She ran free, picked fruit in the jungle and bathed in the river. “Children haven’t got it nice like how we had it before.”
LADY WHAT DOES | Sara Jordan | UK | 2019 | Drama | 6min
A cleaner and her boss face a terrible mess. Will the cleaner tidy everything up as usual or this time will one of them meet a sticky end?
MAGICLAND | Celia Willis & Emily Stein | UK | 2019 | Documentary | 3min
Jenny Mayers is the first black woman invited into the Magic Circle, the world’s premier magic society. Playful, charming and bursting with colour, Magicland is a celebration of personality, magic and the happiness that performance can spread.
INTERMISSION
THE HONEYS AND BEARS | Veena Rao | USA | 2015 | Documentary | 3min
Members of the Harlem Honeys and Bears, a synchronized swim team for seniors, describe the freedom of the water.
CHAMP 5 | Paul Gatto, David Jester & Kathleen Strouse | USA | 2020 | Documentary | 8min
Rita Willey, a cannery worker for 38 years, was famous for her blazing speed as a fish packer. No one was faster than Rita. But in the heat of competition, will she be crowned The World’s Fastest Sardine Packer?
OLDER THAN WHAT? | Steen Starr | Canada | 2017 | Documentary | 13min
12 LGBTQ Canadian elders answer 10 questions about aging and share stories on how they made history. A documentary dedicated to Ruth Starr, the filmmaker’s mother, who died in May 2020, at the age of 93.
PORCELAIN | Roswitha Chesher | UK | 2017 | Experimental | 5min
A lifetime together. A table, two chairs, some porcelain teacups and saucers. A story of life, dependency love and loss.
WINGS | Jamie Weston | UK | Drama | 2019 | 18min
An LGBTQ+ love story spanning six decades, between two Land Army girls during World War II. A partly silent film, accompanied by a beautiful score, starring BAFTA award-winning actresses Miriam Margolyes, and fifties film legend, Virginia Mckenna.
WOFFF filmmaker Q&A and goodbye from WOFFF | Various | 23min
ACCESSIBLE FILMS
Thanks to funding from the National Lottery Community Fund and BFI Film Hub South East all the Moving Pictures have subtitles and closed captions. Thanks to The Film Bunch for making these films accessible.
REQUESTING MOVING PICTURES
If you’d like Moving Pictures to visit your elder care residential home or community centre, please drop us a line here. We’d love to hear from you!
THANKS
Moving Pictures is working in partnership in east London with Barbican and Leytonstone Loves Film. Nationally Moving Pictures is supported by The National Lottery Community Fund.
