Haltwhistle Film Project highlights local heritage through art and film in 'Dynamic Northumbria' initiative

For the past 20 years, Haltwhistle Film Project have been working with thousands of people a year, including schools and organisations, to promote filmmaking and creative arts in the local community.

Their current project, Dynamic Northumbria brings together their decades of experience to explore 17 heritage sites across the area which was once the ancient Kingdom of Northumbria.

The project involves bringing ‘heritage experts’ and artists along with community groups to each of these sites to create unique artworks inspired by the locations. Later this year, these creative responses will be brought together in a film and toured to each of the places that were visited.

Among the locations visited so far includes: Bellingham Iron Works, Craster and Cocklawburn beach near Berwick as well as those further afield which were previously part of Northumbria.

Owner of Haltwhistle Film Project, Vicky Jones explained: “The idea is to take a group to a site where they learn something about the heritage through the experts and then they create a response in whatever way they like, led by an artist.”

The heritage experts include ecologists, geologists, archaeologists and historians, and the artists could be anything from writers to sculptors to create a wide variation of responses.

Vicky added: “A key motivator to us creating this project is the idea that history is made up of many stories, all from different points of view. There isn't one version. In schools in particular, it is often presented as if there is.

“We tried as far as possible to use artists who had some connection to the location itself, or the heritage ideas relating to that location. We also took drone shots of each location so that participants could fully understand where they were in the landscape.

“It’s going to be a task but we want to include elements of each place in a creative way, we honestly haven’t decided how its going to go yet. It will have the history and these creative ideas from all the different people.”

The project was made possible through The National Lottery Heritage Fund. All of the creative responses that have been made so far can be seen on the Haltwhistle Film Project’s website.