Sam Franklyn


From trekking through
English woods at night looking
for ghosts to filming in the wake
of endurance athletes in the
Amazon jungle, filmmaker
Sam Franklyn has it covered.
Franklyn, 24, from
Eastbourne, already has his
own film production company,
Concrete Rose. His 20-minute
film, Community Spirit, about
interest in the paranormal
in Brighton, sees Sam follow
members from two Sussexbased
groups as they attempt
to provide proof of the
paranormal.
Rather than focusing on the
purpose of their investigations,
Franklyn’s film looks at the
friendships forged by the
members of the groups. He says:
“I’ve always been fascinated
with the lesser-explored stories
of human life, and like to
‘normalise the weird’. I began
searching the internet for any
paranormal groups operating
within the Brighton or Sussex
area and stumbled across
20 to 30 groups.
“Going on actual
investigations with these groups
was an experience and a half.
Walking through dark woods
for hours, sometimes not
knowing exactly where I was
and listening to what the
mediums could pick up on and
seeing them communicate with
spirits proved to be an eyeopener
but this never put me
off the intention of the film. It
was never about ghost-hunting
and whether or not ghosts
actually exist. We did, however,
spend an hour ‘communicating’
with a spirit that a medium
could see and which set off a
number of pieces of equipment
that proved rather spooky.
You’ll have to watch the film
to see exactly what happened!”
In October Sam will be in
the Amazon in Brazil, filming
an endurance marathon for
television, and in November he
will embark on a four-month
worldwide travel documentary
on South Africa, Thailand,
Australia, Hawaii, LA, New
Orleans and the Caribbean.


Peter Harte
 

The experience of dementia
is the inspiration behind an
interactive multimedia
installation called Mnemosyne
(the name of the Titan goddess
of memory and remembrance)
that will be on show at the
MA documentary degree
show at the Lighthouse.
The creator, Peter Harte
was inspired by his experiences
as a health professional and
as a creative media student.
The installation is a two-room
interactive installation that will
take visitors on a trip inside a
brain as it begins to degenerate
during the physical stages of
dementia, while in another
room resembling a residential
home, visitors will be placed
in the position of a newly
diagnosed dementia sufferer.
The exhibit aims to highlight
the physical and psychological
impact of this devastating and
increasingly common disease.
Peter, from Ireland but now
living in Brighton, gave up
a career in the health sector to
concentrate on his creative side
and is now completing an MA
in creative media practice at
the University of Sussex.
Peter says:“My work has
always contained elements of
participatory video, which actively encourages the film’s
subjects to contribute in the
filmmaking process. I think
this approach offers a creative
way of resolving personal
problems or even communityrelated
conflicts.
“With Mnemosyne I wanted
to explore the possibilities of
using media in its many forms:
print, photography, video,
sound and research, to see
whether I could produce an
effective tool to both inform
and empower others. My aim
has been to highlight what it
might be like to suffer from
a degenerative brain disorder,
placing the visitor as a newly
diagnosed patient into
a residential home. The visitor
has to call upon their own
memory, mental reasoning
and brain function, while
engaging with media situated
within the installation and
all the while being assisted
by a real nurse.”
Previous work by Peter
includes: Blowing The Whistle
– uncovering homophobic
hate-crime in Brighton
and Hove; Walls And Laws –
helping resolve a territorial
battle within Brighton’s
graffiti community; The
Rapture And The Residue –
helping a family with
a religious cult past resolve
issues regarding spiritual
abuse; and Running On
Empty – helping a nurse
reveal her secret of living
with bulimia.


Rachel Tavernor
 

A stitch in time saves nine,
according to the proverb, but
can needlework save your soul
or the planet? Filmmaker
Rachel Tavernor explores the
unlikely tale of subversive
stitching and how needlecraft
has influenced the lives of
young activist Sarah Corbett
and former prisoner Neil.
Tavenor 24, from Newcastle
upon Tyne, who has directed
Stitched Stories, her entry for
the MA degree show, worked
in collaboration with Fine
Cell Work, a social enterprise
that trains prisoners in paid,
skilled, creative needlework
and the Craftivist Collective,
who creatively campaign
through stitching.
The film interweaves
the narratives of the two
stitchers and shows how they
have come to use needlecraft
as a means of personal and
social change.
Neil learned to make
cushions during the many
hours he spent in his cell.
Learning to sew gave Neil
a focus while in prison and
the documentary explores
how sewing gave Neil time
to reflect. Now he has been
released he is looking forward
to making cushions for himself.
Corbett is passionate about
exposing the scandal of global
injustices in our world but
often felt like she didn’t fit into
typical activist groups. She
loves Vogue, doesn’t ride a bike
and is not a vegan but, through
learning to craft and combining
it with her passion for global
justice, has found a new and
creative way to campaign.
Tavenor says: “The prison
population is at an all-time
high and activists are frequently
represented as angry citizens,
so in Stitched Stories I’m
hoping to give prisoners and
activists an opportunity to
subvert society’s stereotypes
and illustrate the real
meaning of needlework.”
She will start her doctorate
at the University of Sussex in
September, researching the
visual representation of social
movements in the school
of media, film and music.
She hopes to continue her
creative collaborations with
activists and charities while
pursuing her research.


Olimata Jeng
 

Olimata Jeng was the first
black baby to be born in
Farsund Hospital in the
southern tip of Norway. Now
35, the Digital Documentary
MA student with a passion for
television has made a film that
explores her diverse personal
heritage and what it means
to be Norwegian and black.
Jeng, whose family came
from Gambia so her
father could
study
for a doctorate, developed her
love of television while growing
up as it was instrumental in
helping her to develop a sense
of her identity. She says:
“Growing up I was usually
the only black kid in daycare,
elementary school, middle
school and high school. In
adulthood I was usually the
only one in the workplace.
“I became interested in
TV at the age of 11 when my
parents got cable TV, because
international television had
something Norwegian
television lacked: people
who looked like me. When
I was 17 I moved to Gambia
with my family. My dad was
the first Gambian in Norway
to be awarded a PhD, and he
wanted to use his education
back home.
“In 1999 I moved back to
Norway, then to the University
of West Georgia in the US,
to study for a BA in mass
communications. In 2011
I came to Sussex to pursue my
degree in Digital Documentary”.
Olimata’s film, The
N(orwegian) Word, is the
resulting degree show project.
Olimata says: “Because of my
background it is something
I’ve always been asked about
when I am abroad and when
I am in Norway, I have always
had to identify myself to others
– where am I really from? But
Norway is all I know, because
I was born and raised there. So
basically the film explores what
it means to be Norwegian for
me, my family and my friends.”
Olimata is now looking
to pursue a career in
television production.