Alongside the Votes For Women touring exhibition, the National Portrait Gallery and the National Trust co-commissioned filmmaker Benjamin Wigley to create four experimental films in response to the idea of the right to have a voice. The only brief that Ben received was that it had to be collaborative. The four properties where the exhibition toured, and the films were made were Killerton, Mount Stewart (in Northern Ireland), The Workhouse in Southwell, and Cragside. Each property had community groups which they were working with that reflected the history and personality of each property. All the films were shot on 16mm motion picture film, both B&W and Colour, then scanned at Ultra HD and then edited digitally with the soundscapes. The concept for all the films is focused on the idea of a ‘voice’, whether that be an opportunity to say something meaningful, the idea of a right to have your opinion heard, or communicating a voice through other means like through the medium of dance.

Building on this film project, with the support from Arts Council England, we developed an exhibition of photographic prints using the original motion picture 16mm film stock. The exhibition of films and forty prints made from the films has been showing at the Workhouse throughout May, June, and July, in their newly refurbished exhibition space. In addition to this, the Cragside film was selected and shown for a LUX and Awen Screening as part of the Jubilee Pool Stories.
Click on the first four images below (with the Video play button) taken from each film to see an excerpt of the artist films.