Re:Score, part of the Changing Times: Curious screen heritage programme

Event Location: Pier Street, Pier St, Hull HU1 1TU

Two historic pieces of footage have been re-imagined as part of an outdoor audio-visual experience that will form part of The Freedom Festival’s grand finale weekend.

Re:Score, featuring commissions by The Broken Orchestra (UK), is part of the Changing Times: Curious screen heritage programme, and will be shown at Hull Marina on Friday and Saturday evening this week (2-3 September).

The event, for which original compositions have been written to provide modern, alternative soundtracks to seemingly forgotten pieces of silent archive footage, is part of an annual feast of music and performance art held to honour slave trade abolitionist William Wilberforce.

The first, ‘Springtime in an English Village 1944’ from the Yorkshire Film Archive Collection, features a score by singer-songwriter Law Holt to highlight one of the earliest representations of Black Britain on film, focusing on a Black girl as May Queen and challenging assumptions about rural Britain in wartime.

Raised in Leicester and now splitting her time between London and Edinburgh, Law has worked and toured with Mercury Music Prize Winners Young Fathers, and her music defies categorisation.

For the second piece, and ahead of the release of their latest album, punk band LIFE’s composition accompanies ‘A Family Affair’ (BFI National Archive), a 1960s film showing the work of Hull’s Sailors’ Children’s Society, an important organisation at the heart of working class life as it supported the families of the city’s fishermen, many of whom were lost at sea.

Two historic pieces of footage have been re-imagined as part of an outdoor audio-visual experience that will form part of The Freedom Festival’s grand finale weekend.

Re:Score, featuring commissions by The Broken Orchestra (UK), is part of the Changing Times: Curious screen heritage programme, and will be shown at Hull Marina on Friday and Saturday evening this week (2-3 September).

The event, for which original compositions have been written to provide modern, alternative soundtracks to seemingly forgotten pieces of silent archive footage, is part of an annual feast of music and performance art held to honour slave trade abolitionist William Wilberforce.

The first, ‘Springtime in an English Village 1944’ from the Yorkshire Film Archive Collection, features a score by singer-songwriter Law Holt to highlight one of the earliest representations of Black Britain on film, focusing on a Black girl as May Queen and challenging assumptions about rural Britain in wartime.

Raised in Leicester and now splitting her time between London and Edinburgh, Law has worked and toured with Mercury Music Prize Winners Young Fathers, and her music defies categorisation.

For the second piece, and ahead of the release of their latest album, punk band LIFE’s composition accompanies ‘A Family Affair’ (BFI National Archive), a 1960s film showing the work of Hull’s Sailors’ Children’s Society, an important organisation at the heart of working class life as it supported the families of the city’s fishermen, many of whom were lost at sea.

Mikey Martins, artistic director and CEO of the Freedom Festival Arts Trust, said: “This project has given stylistically very different musicians the freedom to interpret a modern soundtrack for these films in their own way, to allow the audience, many of whom might not ordinarily go to see traditional archive films, to have a unique experience and develop a fascinating relationship with the footage.

“It’s a beautiful interaction and offers young people in particular a chance to see and experience something they never have before.”

Screen Heritage Producer Andy Robson added: “The pandemic has forced us to look at life through a new lens and over the last two years of disruption and isolation, we’ve recognised things we may have missed or never considered before.

“Through multiple lockdowns, we’ve gained a new awareness of our communities and neighbourhoods, made discoveries of previously unacknowledged places on our doorsteps and found satisfaction in personal passions and curiosities.

“However we experienced it, the pandemic asked us to question and learn something new, to understand the unfamiliar and seek solutions. Through film’s unique ability to transport us, illuminate ideas and to spark a conversation, we can seek those solutions and understand those experiences together.”

Re:Score, which is wheelchair accessible and is showing at 8.30pm on both nights on Pier Street, is presented by Freedom Festival. It has been produced by The Broken Orchestra in association with British Film Institute and Yorkshire Film Archive, supported by BFI Film Audience Network through National Lottery Funding.

Find out more at freedomfestival.co.uk, and filmhubnorth.org.uk/curious.

*This is a multi-sensory show with visuals and audio that lasts approximately 25 minutes in length and runs in a loop. Images will be projected onto the back of the buildings at the car park on the corner of Pier Street and Wellington Street. This is a wheelchair accessible area. The first loop will be audio described. Please ask a volunteer or member of staff if you would like a headset.