Heritage Lottery Fund: How Film-Making has helped us to understand history

The Heritage Lottery Fund awarded CoActive Arts with funding to help our group of adults with learning difficulties research what life was like for people with learning difficulties 120 years ago and to research how things  have changed.

We did this by making films about people lives now, interviewing people with learning difficulties. We also found out about people 120 years ago by visiting the Museum, the Archive and the Library and then using  drama to bring it to life. 

Start of  our Heritage Lottery Fund project 

The group started by doing film interviews, and deciding what to talk about.
It was really useful, because we got alot out of it & when we showed our short films out in the public. We thought it would help out others to understand & learn about us.    

The making of our film project 
Everyone enjoyed setting up the cameras and lights but we soon realised that having too big a set-up could be intimidating for the person being interviewed. So we tried to film in a more informal way and used our group table time to discuss important topics. 

Once we discussed general themes, such as school days & support. we then focused on individuals stories. we dedicated alot of time to individuals stories, and the editing process.

Editing our Heritage Lottery Funded film   
Then came the longest part of the filming process - the editing! 
We started off editing in big groups so we could all take part but we quickly realised this wasn't conducive and it was hard for everyone to follow.
So we started editing in smaller groups so that we could get more done and people could have more control and learn to skills. ​

How we found the project 
We didn't just help others learn about what we did. but also we learned about knowledge we didn't know ourselves.

We hope others watch our films & learn about our own history. 

By Dan and Dabion, CoActive Arts members