Hear for Life

Hear for Life, BBC Radio 4, 26 Nov 2019, producer: Phil Smith

In this program Adrian Jackson and myself discuss the making of the Artangel commission "Here for Life" (2019). We offer insight into the process of our collaboration and with the participants, over the cause of three years. In particular we outline how to collaborate across disciplines (Jackson works with Augusto Boal's radical pedagogic theatre practice, with the company he founded and runs: Cardboard Citizens, https://cardboardcitizens.org.uk/).

Filmmaking and theatre making may be seen as opposite ends, one builds on images, the other on text. Most importantly, here, is the conversation of the troubling of the gaze by which marginalised bodies are often depicted in mainstream media. Even the genres of their depictions are mostly within the realm of 'realism'.

My filmmaking challenges these tropes through making counter memories, vernacular poetics, and Adrian's work in reframing the story to be told by those that know it. We propose a working with, refusing to portray marginalised people as victims, and outline how we work collaboratively.

• https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000bm...