In April 2020 I was approached by Jenni who proposed a collaborative, community art project in response to the, then unprecedented, national lockdown. As a small collective of musicians, filmmakers and theatre practitioners we devised what would become a short film featuring the talents of over 50 people who live on our street in East Bristol.

 

The soundtrack was an integral component; the film had little dialogue and relied on the score to help navigate the narrative and progression of time.

 

As the director I worked closely with Jenni from the outset. Together we reflected on preliminary interviews with our neighbours; accounts of their experiences and complicated, sometimes conflicting feelings about lockdown – frustration/gratitude, fear/boredom, anxiety/peacefulness. We wanted this fluidity of emotion to be reflected in the music.

 

I was so impressed with Jenni’s original composition, I thought it captured the complexity and nuance of feeling we had discussed beautifully. It also accented elements of the story, such as a magical realism sequence featuring a fairy-tale and animation, while remaining a cohesive and developing piece.

 

We wanted to involve as many artists from the community as possible. Once Jenni had a draft of the score she reached out to professional and amateur local musicians and vocalists to remotely record the components and then brought these elements together to produce the final score.

 

I found Jenni to be a sensitive, creative and intuitive collaborator. I was grateful for her experience in arts facilitating that meant she kept our responsibility to the community behind this film at the forefront of the project, encouraging us to seek and draw out the many talents in our neighbourhood.

 

Victoria Bromley

Director – A Window in Time