CHHS, English & Brigstow lunchtime screening & discussion:

Lost Property & Nothing Echoes Here – Creativity, Grief and Filmmaking

Jimmy Hay and Lesel Dawson

ARTS CMPLX G.H01 (the screening room at the back of 3-5 Woodland Road; the main entrance can be found at 7 Woodland Road)

This event is open to all at the University of Bristol. No booking is required.

Is it possible to convey the lived experience of grief, loss, and bereavement in a short film, by using the creative tools of filmmaking such as camera movement, shot length, focus, and editing? Does reimagining our losses as fictional stories help us to express and process our emotions or offer a temporary form of escape? Are there any risks in drawing on personal experiences of grief when making art?

In this seminar, Jimmy Hay and Lesel Dawson will be screening two Brigstow-funded short fiction films and exploring these questions. The first, Lost Property, interweaves the filmmakers’ personal stories and reflections into a fictional narrative, using important spaces and objects as locations and props. Nothing Echoes Here, charts a 24-hour period in the life of a woman and her two children, in the near-aftermath of the death of their husband and father, exploring the role that space – interior, exterior, familiar, non-familiar – plays for those grieving a profound loss.

After the screening, Lesel and Jimmy will discuss the making of the film and what the experience taught them about art, grief, and collaborative research. They will consider how stories, physical objects and places can allow us to connect with (and sometimes change) our imaginative relationship to those who have died and whether filmmakers can utilise the formal elements of film language and performance to portray grief in an authentic and empathetic manner.