17/8/17 - Day 11 / Week 2: Joan Skypewalker
Moving in to Northbourne gives us the space to get to know people and be responsive to their stories and interests, rather than always offering 'activity' or objects etc to be responded to. We have been able to do everyday things like eat, watch tv and just spend time with Joan, who talks a lot about her time as an evacuee in 1939, and so have been able to make this film with her, rather than about her. It is the kind of small co-incidences that reveal themselves when you are in close proximity to a person all day, that make this film feel very special.
The walk itself highlights the subjectivity and personal nature of memory - it is fickle, and unreliable but at the same time, it is what we can build a lot of our life's story around. Farmer Thompson was amazed and overwhelmed when Claire walked up the path of his farm and asked if he was related to Mary Thompson! The idea of being able to reunite a 2nd Word War evacuee with the place she lived for two years was so precious to him. He gave Claire a book all about the village to give to Joan - all week she has been reading me a long list of the inordinate amount of vicars the parish church has had over the years...
It was a bit amazing to be able to make this little film.