For Our Time
AGENCY: THE 4TH HOUSE
A 10 year project, travelling; from the streets of London to refugee camps in Jordan and Africa, and from the stage at Glastonbury to The Venice Biennale.
2015 - 2025
10 years in 4 minutes.
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This is neither ‘my film’, nor a film that seeks to tell a story that is necessarily understandable to an audience who meet the project for the first time. It’s as much a question as an answer - a film that simply says "This Happened’.
Over the ten years of working on the project I was never given a brief, just permission to be there, to document, to bring my own contribution, initially as an observer, and then a participant and contributor. This process changed the way that I make films and they way that I approach my life.
It required an approach that is unauthored, that removes the editor from the process, that offers no opinion. Constructed chronologically, of one second shots, framed with dates marking time, the filmmaker tries to hide their presence.
This is a story that needs to be known, not as an act of celebration that says ‘look what we did’ but rather a demonstration of a way of working, where imagination, human connection, and collaboration replace top down process. Where humans are given the chance to create their own futures rather than fit into the processes of agenda focused organisations.
To the 300 people who gave their love, energy and time to this I project, this is for you. Thank you. And to the audience who who find this story for the first time I hope you find questions that bring you back. This is a beginning not an end.
A Dress For Our Time
The story begins with a tent, that became a home, that became a Dress.
2015: St Pancras
This is where my journey began. With an afternoon’s work at St Pancras Station that became a 10 year odyssey.
2018: The Venice Biennale
Commissioned by The United Nations as an exhibit at the UN Pavillion at The Venice Biennale.
Zaatari Refugee Camp, Jordan
Returning to Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan, the home of The Dress
Welcome to Zaatari
A documentary of the first fact-finding trip.
Made in Zaatari
A documentary of the journey to set up a refugee owned brand in the camp to help produce sustainable incomes for refugees.
Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures
Following Sheffield University and the building of a co-created hydroponics farm.
Dzaleka Refugee Camp, Malawi.
Moving the project to Africa.
Dzaleka Style
I remotely produced a short film with young filmmakers in the camp to highlight the culture of fashion, music and youth culture.
Dzaleka Arts Lab
Dzaleka Arts Lab is a collaboration between refugees The University of the Arts London, NGOs, refugee-led organisations and digital art collectives.
The lab's purpose is to experiment with imagination and courage through the life stories of all those involved, connecting them to new opportunities for economic and emotional well-being.
