Yasmina El-Khatib and our BFI Film Academy Southwest mentee Amy Smith tell us about their internships at Aardman Animations.
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BLACK BARK FILMS
Over the past few years we have undertaken small business coaching with Esme Filsinger and it has completely transformed the way we work at Black Bark Films - and brought our business further inline with the way in which we see the world.
Here are a few of the positive changes, thoughts and feelings we garnered from our time with Esme.
Our business should work for us.
We didn’t create Black Bark because we wanted to stride into the filmmaking and television industry with guns blazing, to bag loads of cash and make a name for ourselves. We are both deeply curious about the world that we live in - and we love people. We are committed to both listening to and sharing people’s stories in a careful and caring way. We created Black Bark because of this, and the business should reflect that it is an extension of ourselves, not just a money earning project (although we are so grateful to both be full time filmmakers making our income from Black Bark!).
Communication is key.
We are both deep reflectors. We reflect before, during and after projects; we embed action learning and check-ins into our business; we have worked hard to communicate well with each other (which can be tricky when working with one of your best pals). But how do we communicate this to our clients and collaborators? Together with Esme’s prompts we have put together an ethical manifesto of how our business values live in the way that we work (which you can see below), and we now have a workflow including how we communicate with our clients and collaborators.
Blue sky thinking is important.
We are a very real company operating within a very real world, representing real people as authentically as possible. But we dream widely about the world we want to see, about the people who we want to follow, who we want to see on our screens, and of the stories we want to hear. We also think widely about how to make our work better, and how to be humans in the world. Then we take a step by step approach into making those dreams a reality for us both - and for the business we run.
Updated 9th July 2021.
Using precaution we have agreed to start shooting once again. Please read below for the Covid-19 precautions, and do get in touch if you’d like to work with us, but feel nervous or unsure due to the current climate. We will assess filming on a case by case basis and may postpone work if we feel it may be unsafe for ourselves, or for our clients and collaborators.
UK Government advice on Covid- 19
What we will be doing to stay safe and keep you safe:
PRE PRODUCTION/ POST PRODUCTION
All pre-production will take place online via zoom, skype, email and/ or the telephone, if necessary.
If a face to face meeting is requested, we would prefer to meet in an outside space. We will wear masks if you would prefer, and have anti bac in our pockets.
We will keep our workspace sanitised and clean and minimise the amount of people sharing our workspace.
PRODUCTION
We will organise shoots to fit your needs around coronavirus, which may include; wearing face masks, keeping 1 - 2m distance between ourselves and vulnerable peoples; cleaning our equipment thoroughly; placing used equipment in plastic pockets to be quarantined until we get it back to our studio.
We will wash our hands thoroughly before and after the shoot, and use anti bac as needed in between.
If possible, we will shoot outdoors (if noise and weather limitations allow us), or we will discuss inside spaces ahead of the shoot to ensure good ventilation and space allowance.
On the 7 days prior to, or on the day of the shoot, if one of our crew displays any cold/flu/Covid-19 like symptoms such as having a temperature or a dry cough, we will contact you to reschedule, if possible.
If you or any of the contributors either 7 days prior to, or on the day of the shoot, display any cold/flu/Covid-like symptoms such as having a temperature or a dry cough, please notify us, and we will reschedule the shoot, if possible.
If you have been in contact with anyone in the last 7 days who is experiencing symptoms or who has tested positive for Covid-19, please get in touch as soon as possible to reschedule.
We will bring our own water vessels and food.
Please contact us if you have any concerns or would like to discuss any of the above at blackbarkfilms@gmail.com
Tonight as part of #BristolFoodKind our first ever documentary 100 Miles and 2 Mouths will be shown online, followed by a Q and A.
Here is an original blog post about the food featured in the film: http://www.blackbarkfilms.com/the-food
Our Doc short One Acre is part of the South West Filmathon competition with Devon And Cornwall Film - you can vote for your favourite film here and the winners will receive an audience award - so if you particularly enjoyed our doc short about Liv James at Down Farm, please have a look and give us a vote! 👇
Some comments from the judges...
"Brilliant documentary, great subject matter and deserves a follow up film" - John Tomkins, Filmmaker/Director of the English Riviera Film Festival
"Informative, minimalist, documentary with a stand out atmospheric and ambient original score/soundscape from Ami Kaelyn" - Christopher Williams, Photographer/Producer at Oddhaunts Films
We are up against some absolutely brilliant competition, here are some of our picks from the bunch:
We’re very excited to have won the Women in Cornish Music commission to make a film about the ‘Accidental Choir mistress’ Vicky Abbot.
You can read more about the commission and the other filmmakers we’re excited to be working alongside here.
As is tradition from us here at Black Bark Films... a very happy (albeit belated) New Year!
A little late we know, but we wanted to wait and share the exciting news with you about our latest film The Red Dress, which is currently in production. Until March 12th we’re running a crowdfunder to get us to Mexico, to begin shooting the first part of this incredible journey. For over 10 years, 140 people from 27 different countries have worked on this dress. It transcends borders and brings disparate communities together, empowering the embroiderers and creating connection across the world… all on one piece of fabric.
So far we have raised almost 30% of our target and would love your support to make this important film a reality. You can read more about the project and donate here: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/the-red-dress.
We would also like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has supported Black Bark Films in 2019. We were very excited to have our work with North Devon Moving Image featured on BBC Spotlight, to have chatted with Yaz Brien twice for the Women’s Outlook show on Ujima fm, and once with the Real Women team on BCFM - and to be asked by St Werburgh’s City Farm to speak at their Summer Fayre discussing how we approach filmmaking in a collaborative way. A big thanks to the team at Shambala Festival for featuring our non-gendered menstruation venue The Red Sea Travel Agency on their blog, talking about how our films are tools for compassion.
2020 is already looking exciting, beginning the year with shooting a crowdfunder film for Brithdir Mawr in Pembrokeshire, editing a promo for Kenyan based yoga safari holiday provider Kabisa and preparing for The Red Dress shoot in March. A collection of shorts made for Off The Record’s Freedom Youth were displayed in February as part of a month long exhibition for LGBTQ+ month at the MShed, and later this year we will be heading up to Dumfries with our feature doc In Our Hands. We have various projects in development, including a short on land and trespass, a feature doc with farmer Gerald Miles (from In Our Hands), a menstruation themed short for our friends at the Real Period Project, and a pro bono project for the folk at Borderlands, amongst others.
As always, do get in touch if you have any ideas up your sleeves as we’re always looking to collaborate on projects that we deeply care about, be it crowdfunders, promos, documentaries or providing filmmaking workshops for young people and other groups.
We wish you all a happy and fruitful 2020 and hope to see your faces again soon!
Below are some of our (many) highlights from 2019
We started the year exploring drag and the female gaze with performance artist Viki Brown on Hyperfem as part of her residency at Trinity centre in Bristol.
Winning a commission for Down on the Farm producing One Acre a 5 minute short with young female farmer Liv James of Down Farm, which is now on display in Barnstaple Museum, as part of a permanent collection.
Exploring menopause and identity with performance artist Kat Lyons on her spoken word theatre project Dry Season creating both a research and development short and promotional film.
Producing a crowdfunder film for our friends at the Community Kitchen in Bristol, who now have their new kitchen up and running. We are so very proud of them and so grateful to help such an amazing project!
In Our Hands is continuing to do the rounds at festivals and community screenings, landing the AgroJury Film award in Slovakia in 2019. You can watch it here for free, and the subtitled versions in Spanish, French and German are also available here.
Spending time with Off The Record’s LGBTQ+ Freedom Youth group, to make a series of shorts celebrating 25 years of the group. We were endlessly inspired by the courage, confidence and acceptance of these young people.
We began working with Lifebeat around the transformational power of youth leadership, creating promotional films for the project and working collaboratively with more inspiring young people to create youth led, film based responses to issues around identity and mental health.
We were back at Shambala festival with The Red Sea Travel Agency - a co-creation between Black Bark Films and No More Taboo. It's the first gender inclusive, dedicated menstruation space to be held at a UK festival.
A second stop motion animation featuring our favourite potatoes for the Sims Hill Crowdfunder to fund an apprentice grower.
Our first ever music video for our friends Fitty Gomash, which included filming a 300 strong ceilidh at Oxford Real Farming Conference 2019.
And finally we began small business coaching with the powerful Esme Filsinger. We cannot recommend her services enough and look forward to growing through 2020 with her guidance and expertise!
Thanks to Devon and Cornwall Film for this interview about our latest short 'One Acre'. We certainly feel it is beautiful and rewarding work to be allowed to share the stories of Liv and Henry and their lives on Down Farm.
First published on Devon and Cornwall Film.
Beautiful and rewarding: One Acre by Black Bark Films
JANUARY 16, 2020 BY D&CFILM
In the short documentary One Acre, Jo Barker and Holly Black of Black Bark Films teamed up with Dee Butterly of the Landworkers’ Alliance for a film about a young woman’s entry into sustainable farming.
One Acre was part of the Down on the Farm series of commissions from North Devon Moving Image. It gave Jo and Holly an opportunity to deepen their experience of farming and food activism. We caught up with them to chat about their experience.
D&CFilm: What was it about the Down on the Farm project, and Down Farm, that attracted you?
HB: As filmmakers that helped to create In Our Hands and 100 Miles and 2 Mouths – both films about innovative farmers and food activism, we have experience of making films around these themes – and we love this topic very much – so we felt Black Bark was a really good fit for the Down on the Farm commission.
JB: I loved the idea of it being centralised to one area, as it allowed us to be more geographically specific with the story we told, whilst also connecting it to a wider context within UK farming.
D&CFilm: Holly and Jo, how did you get together with Dee and how did the relationship flow in terms of the film?
HB: We have been doing bits of filming for the Landworkers’ Alliance over the past few years, helping to capture the growth of a powerful social movement of young people, so we have known Dee for a while and always felt inspired by the way that she approaches issues with such insight – and we knew Dee has a keen interest in film. As a filmmaking process it was really good for us to work with someone outside of Black Bark Films. We felt challenged – in a very good way!
D&CFilm: What sort of visual language did you use to present the themes of the film?
HB: We spent a lot of time in pre-production talking to Liv and thinking about how best to present her story of being at Down Farm without being too explicit. She is a very gentle and thoughtful character, and we used long hand-held shots with intimate close ups of her and Henry’s day to day activities to reflect this.
JB: Spending time on the farm on the recces without filming allowed us to observe what we felt whilst being there and how we saw Liv and Henry in context to their environment. That in turn lead us to pick more deeply the images that we wanted to concentrate on, ie. the long held shot of them peeling back the netting in their morning routine, which was also a key part of the soundscape we created too.
D&CFilm: How important was it to build a rapport with Liv and Henry at Down Farm?
HB: Very important to us, as it is with all of our filmmaking. Previous to making One Acre we met them at a couple of LWA events and then we visited the farm twice before even getting a camera out! Now we get to hang out at festivals and mutual friends’ farms so I guess we didn’t put them off being in front of the camera too much…
JB: We deeply respect what it means to ask someone for permission to observe them, interpret them and then retell their story. It’s a very precious thing to be allowed to do that and meeting them as people before we put a camera up is key to how we work.
D&CFilm: You were looking at a female Somerset-based composer who is also a farmer for the score. How did that work out and how important is the music to the film?
HB: Ami is a friend who I’ve known for years through Emily Teague, a musician that we have worked with a lot in the past. I knew Ami had been working at a farm out in Malmesbury and Jo and I bumped into her at a farm in Bristol, so it felt very fortuitous to have someone so talented that also has first hand understanding of what farming small scale entails.
D&CFilm: Tell us more about your broader filmmaking and how your Down on the Farm film fits into that, particularly your feature documentary In Our Hands?
HB: Down the Farm has given us a great opportunity to flex our artistic muscles in a way that’s really true to our method of filmmaking. Since In Our Hands we have mostly been doing client based work, and One Acre allowed us to have complete control of our outputs which feels really powerful. I wish we could do more work like this!
JB: With In Our Hands we had a clear agenda and brief but the Landworker’s Alliance were amazing producers, they took a very hands off approach and we felt able to really develop our style as filmmakers. We felt this again with One Acre, with the process allowing us to question a lot about why we would include a particular shot and ask deeper questions to it’s relevance as part of the story. We really thought about every shot, every line and every pause as to its intention.
D&CFilm: What is the role of the filmmaker / artist in society?
HB: Filmmakers have a significant social role to play in society, I think – as do all artists. At Black Bark Films we are so aware of the political and ethical nature of our work, of putting images and words together to tell a story that usually is not ours. There is such a responsibility that comes with this.
JB: In every society there are observers that interpret their environment in ways that help others better to understand it, or glimpse a window into an alternate ways of looking at something. I see film as a tool for compassion, to bring about more understanding and empathy,
D&CFilm: Food politics is key to the future and facing up to the climate emergency. How does Down Farm fit in with that?
HB: Down Farm is just one example of how loads of produce can be produced from such a small area, with no machinery. The veg is delicious (we can vouch for it first hand) and it is a local business that contributes positively to the environment and to the health of the soil. There are so many reasons that we need to rethink agriculture in the UK and small scale farming is definitely an important part of this.
JB: I think Liv is very open about the struggles their method of farming can produce and they are constantly thinking of ways to combat this, by diversifying their crops, growing spaces and looking to their own future physical health. I see Down Farm as rooted in their present in order to learn from the past and prepare for their future.
D&CFilm: Do you think the reality of farming is largely overlooked?
HB: That’s very difficult to answer. Farming comes in all shapes and sizes. I think there is a tendency in mainstream thought to forget about small scale, local and organic farms. It’s a tough job, as Dee can tell you – but it’s beautiful and rewarding, and we hope One Acre shows that.
We were lucky enough to be invited back to speak to Yaz on Women’s Outlook with Yaz!
If you missed us on Wednesday 29th January 2020 - worry not! You can listen again right here (we are on from 1:33 onwards, but the whole show is worth a listen!) Hear us chat about our current project The Red Dress Kirstie Macleod, and our work in 2019 for North Devon Moving Image CIC, and Off The Record (Bristol) for Lgbtq + history month: Freedom. (Well... technically we don't talk about the work with Off The Record (Bristol) directly, but it's definitely worth a look...)
Shout outs to Landworkers' Alliance, Dee Butterly, Henry Allison, Liv James, Down Farm, The Museum of Barnstaple & North Devon, and Yaz for her great conversation which took us from working with emergence, the history of embroidery, what collaborative working means for us, International Women's Day 2020, and our pending crowdfunder set to launch on February 12th! ✊
If you missed us on Ujima Radio 98fm last month - worry not! Click the link below and find us in the first half an hour of the Women's Outlook show on Wednesday 26th June (but we'd recommend listening on for the rest of the show too). Big shout outs to people we've worked with and admire: Viki Browne, Many Minds, In Our Hands, Landworkers' Alliance, Sims Hill Shared Harvest, Save Hamilton House and Kim Loginotto.
Massive thanks to Yaz Brien for inviting us on - officially Black Bark Films favourite radio show host. ✊🎙
In June we were invited by the lovely folk at St Werburgh’s City Farm in Bristol to give a talk about filmmaking. A huge thanks to Kat and the farm for inviting us, to those who came and shared their own stories and questions, and to the great work of the farm in general. You can see a film we made for the farm a couple of years ago below.
We’re happy to say our filmmaking has come on leaps and bounds since then and it was a real honour to be able to talk openly and honestly about our own personal journeys with filmmaking and how it shapes our collaborative, sensitive approach to our work. The beautiful footage below is from the amazingly talented Florence Pellacani. And the still above is from Soul Media/St. Werbughs City Farm.
we’re so excited that our first feature length documentary ’In Our Hands’ (2017) has been shown internationally at Courage Film Festival 2018, Berlin (Germany), New Earth International Film Festival 2018, Krakov (Poland), Life Sciences Film Festival 2018, Prague (Czech Republic), and the British Documentary Film Festival, London (UK).
IT’s also currently oj tour in Austria with Hunger Macht Profite and has seen around 200 community screenings across the UK in the past year.
Keep your eye out for more screenings on the In Our Hands facebook page or buy the dvd here.
2018 has been a big one for Black Bark Films - have a look at our highlights below. In 2019 we would love to collaborate more, so if you have ideas for projects, shorts or promos that you are dying to get out there do get in contact.
- Our first feature length documentary made in association with the Landworkers' Alliance In Our Hands, was shown by communities across the UK from Cornwall to the Scottish Highlands over 300 times! This look at food and farming in the UK post Brexit was also officially selected for the British Documentary Film Festival in London, New Earth International Film Festival in Krakow, Life Sciences Film Festival in Prague and Courage Film Festival in Berlin. Keep your eye out for more screenings on the In Our Hands page.
- Our first international shoot to accompany Gerald Myles from COCA in Pembrokeshire to Germany for a 33,000 strong demonstration in support of small scale farming - included filming Gerald ride a tractor through the streets of Berlin!
- Continuing to support and document the work of the Land Workers' Alliance at their AGM.
- Collaborating with performance artist Viki Browne and her team around ideas of performative femininity on the project Hyper Fem.
- Documenting the eviction of Coexist from Hamilton House and the ongoing gentrification of Stokes Croft. Watch more here.
- A short interview of Peruvian coffee producer Herbert for Cafe Direct and Greenhouse PR, as part of the We Feed the World Exhibition.
- We were selected by North Devon Moving Image to produce a short about female farmer Liv James for the Down The Farm programme.
- Created and documented the first menstruation themed venue, the Red Sea Travel Agency at Shambala festival, providing information and workshops on menstruation for people of all genders.
- Received funding to begin exploring our relationship with land and land ownership in the UK, working alongside the Land Justice Network.
- Other shorts for A Rule of Tum, the Algobabez, and Wati Collective.
- We've loved working with our favourite camera person Florence Pellacani on many of these projects.
- And finally we've joined facebook and started a blog - come and say hello!
We are working with performance artist Viki Browne to explore what it means to perform femininity whilst feeling safe, in a multidisciplinary performance layering projection and live video relay over live performance. We are currently in a research and development phase during Viki’s residency at Trinity Bristol for January 2019.
Watch this space for a teaser to follow soon…
Working with the Save Hamilton House Campaign, we put together this film about community ownership and the opportunities that could arise out of the sale of iconic Hamilton House community in Bristol's Stokes Croft.