THE UP OF THE DOWN

THE UP OF THE DOWN

The Up of The Down is a 21st Century myth co-created with over 40 people including the youth club in Dings Park, students from the nearby Screenology, plus residents and workers from around The Dings / St Phillips area of Bristol, England.

Constructed from black & white photos, sound recordings and original music. It tells a tale of The Up and The Down and their connections through epic expanses of time, space and place. A fictional, cosmic community-art-film that wonders about creation and destruction, dust and play and about strangers and settlements.

The film emerged from Esther May Campbell's and Chiz Williams's six month 'Common Ground’ residency in the Dings, Feeder Road, Gas Lane, Temple Meads and Silverthorne Lane. This low lying part of central Bristol used to be marshland and then 19th century industrial factories and workers housing developed. In more recent decades craftspeople, traders, salvage yards and all kinds of makers have come. Now vast developments, including student accommodation and educational establishments, are being built here. The work also involved one trip to Dunraven Bay in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales.

The film is just one outcome of the residency, which also created spaces for art and play at the Safe 'Ouse, field recordings, creatures making workshops and stories from elders. The project was playful, intrepid and mischievous and made lots of room for mucking about and all kinds of meetings.

Screenings:

JACK’S LAB BRISTOL, SWEDENBORG HOUSE SWEDENBORG FILM FESTIVAL LONDON.

  • ‘This is a stunning film. These young people have found and captured otherworldly beauty in local, everyday scenes in a way that brings back the warmth and magic of early cinema. I would like to watch more films made by people this age!’

    — Jasmine Butt, guest

  • ‘A dream-like urban creation myth full of the textures of the city, never sentimental, unafraid to let audiences sit with mystery, The Up of The Down transported me up, down and within.’

    — Nick Hunt, writer & editor ‘Dark Mountain’

  • 'I like doing the photographs it was a great experience, I might pick it as a GCSE.'

    — Yakouba, Dings resident & maker

  • 'I was so captivated by the story and the magic of photography with every particle of light & dust.'

    —Ilayda Akarca, artist & facilitator

  • 'I enjoyed the film and all the ups and downs of it. The use of flour and water in the story is really good!’

    — Martin Parr, photographer

  • ''I had lots of laughs and joy but I still get excited remembering it.'

    — Abou, Dings resident & maker

  • 'The up and the down moved me through the ins and outs of wonderment. All hail the young.’

    — Annabel Other, The Bristol Art Librarian

  • ‘This is film making at its most rare and precious. A chance to witness the fragile ephemeral beauty of a vital and compelling community.’

    — Jessica Hynes, actor

  • 'A dance of sound and form, voice and light, art and community, wrapped together in a warm, mesmerising monochromatic mythos.'

    — Denzil Monk, film producer ‘Eyns Men’ & ‘Rose of Nevada’

  • ‘A dream of a film. An exquisite portrayal of the beauty of humans and our world, telling a story through sight and sound which touches at the heart of what it means to be human on this earth.'

    — A Hawk & A Hacksaw, music makers

  • 'The Up of the Down is a playful, thought provoking, photo-montage, that's right up my street!'

    — John Minton, director ‘Game’

  • 'Between an infinity of 'up' and an infinity of 'down' lies ‘us’; a small microcosm, attempting to make a modicum of sense of it all, as we strive to locate the here and now within a larger universe. The Dings is currently the focus for major redevelopment, with high-rise offices and apartments shooting up at breakneck speed. Demolition and redevelopment is nothing new for this area, but trapped in amongst the cranes and hard hats are pockets of community and history that need to be acknowledged and, where possible, preserved. ‘The Up and the Down’ explores time and space, material and place within this ongoing continuum of change.'

    — John O’Connor, historian & curator

  • 'I really enjoyed photo club and using the cameras as well. I hope you guys come back so we can make better even better films and pictures.'

    — Aliyah, Dings resident & part of the film team


  • 'Play, intergenerational imagination and tenderness in storytelling. Hasn’t left my mind since. A joy to watch!'

    — Catarina White Wandschneider, anthropologist

  • ‘Brilliant. Congratulations, this little film blew me away!'

    — Jon McCall, Martin Parr Foundation