Forever Archive - films about West Dorset

By maddie - February 01, 2017

I was trawling through the internet the other day, looking for something specific, when I came across something completely different.

(That's the thing with the internet. It can take you down rabbit holes - some of which land you, like Alice, in Wonderland while others take you to a painting by Hieronymus Bosch.)

Anyway, I came across a number of videos that formed part of Forever Archive, a project I helped research back in 2012. Scarily, I was the subject of one of the inteviews, as they ran out of people to film.

Here's the blurb:

In 2012, the Forever Archive project set out to increase awareness of archive film and its relevance to our lives today, and to put across that the idea of archive film is a continuous process – the films from a hundred years ago are a fascinating insight into the way we used to live and similarly, the films we create today will be of huge interest in another hundred years.

Archive film is not something alien and remote, locked into another time; just random fragments of boring history. It goes on as long as life itself and is utterly relevant to now. In the early days of film cinemas often commissioned a cameraman to shoot films of local events and scenes, involving local people in the pictures as an encouragement to come and see themselves and their friends and neighbours on the screen. It was a simple concept but one which made film an intimate part of the community.

This project aimed to be more far-reaching but with the same kind of impact and in the same tradition.

With its focus on West Dorset, the project was overseen by Windrose Rural Media Trust, and enjoyed the involvement of Bridport Arts Centre, Dorset History Centre and Bridport Museum.

The films were produced by James Harrison and featured ten local people, including singing teacher Penny Dunscombe, photographer Kris Dutson, Dorchester tour guide Alistair Chisholm, Lord and Lady Sandwich from the Mapperton estate, Palmers head brewer Darren Batten, apple farmer Rupert Best, balloonist Steve Davis, Emily Fearn from The New Hardy Players and [my alter ego] writer Margery Hookings.

So, in no particular order, here are the films: