A rare and special 1990s community video project, rebooted for one night only (maybe)…
In late 2019 we collaborated with (the now sorely missed) FOODHALL Sheffield, and local screening promoter TV Dinners for a screening and outreach project that gave a platform to a short video documentary made in 1992/93, called DON'‘T RUBBISH THE INNER CITY (DRTIC).
The evening was a programme of film screenings followed by a roundtable discussion with original makers of DRTIC. First off, kindly provided by the Yorkshire Film Archive we showed Conversation Conversation.
The film “captures and reveals the shifting concerns over past decades about issues which radically impact on our environment: changes to the landscape and natural habitat, urban development, the nuclear threat – conflict and energy – waterways, waste management, the campaigns people believed in passionately, alongside recent footage of alternative quests to build more sustainable lifestyles.”
Sheffield 80s… the programme then shifted to a series of shorts that speak to environmental issues. First, Ozone – Julie Carpenter Art School piece made in 1987 at the Sheffield Polytechnic by Julie Carpenter. It falls under the banner of so-called ‘Scratch video’ a work of collage and music, repurposing source footage rhythmically.
Next, another Scratch work from Sheffield Poly. Survive the Coming Hard Times (1984) solely reworks off-air video footage, deliberately unsubtle and affective in its edit content and style. 1984 saw Ronald Reagan had come to power in the US on the back of a growing tide of right wing Christian fundamentalism, and with Margaret Thatcher’s British Government supporting the presence of US Nuclear weapons on British soil…
Jam – Friends of The Earth - 1990? Short doomy VHS piece given to me recently in a box of tapes, which was made by Friends of The Earth Sheffield in response to traffic. And more traffic. It frames car-hell Sheffield against a slightly utopian vision of York as gridlock free. Interestingly it features music by John Avery of Hula (Sheffield post punkers) fame.
After all that portent and late-80s gloom, came the main event.
I was given the tape a couple of years ago by one its makers, Alf Bower. Who is here tonight, and I have recently digitised it for the screening. Connecting environmental activists from the 1980s/90s with places like Foodhall was an important response to understanding our changing relationship with the city.
The doc shows people involved with litter picks, repairing furniture, organic allotment initiatives, and consciousness raising. To once again celebrate this proud modern tradition of radical green Sheffield is to reenergise the history of the inner city, to and ‘connect with contemporary debates’ on our environment and how we interact with it.
A note on the tape and format. It’s U-Matic. It’s thirty years old. It’s a vulnerable medium, so I’ve not really had time to fully restore it, and there is some dropout and visual noise. Some of the onscreen captions have become difficult to read so I’ve replaced with new ones for readability.
Post-Film. After the screening we had a great end engaging discussion about the genesis of the films and were joined by people involved in the project at the start - Alf Bower, Jude Warrender, and Nicola Gilbert.
DRTIC is a special work, and we hope to show it again one day, to inspire and connect.
