Saturday 10 June 2017 – Prof Esther Johnson’s ‘Asunder’ screening for Sheffield Doc/Fest

Sheffield Hallam University’s Professor of Film & Media Arts Esther Johnson has had her film Asunder selected for a screening at Sheffield Doc/Fest on Saturday 10 June 2017. For the Doc/Fest listing for this event please see here.

Asunder
The Light Cinema Free Screen
Howard Street Sheffield
Saturday 10 June 2017
8PM
Admittance free

Asunder tells the story of what happened to an English town during the First World War, with almost all of its men fighting abroad and its women and children left behind. Asunder has a soundtrack composed by Sunderland’s Mercury-nominated Field Music and Newcastle’s Warm Digits, performed with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and The Cornshed Sisters. The narration for the film is voiced by journalist Kate Adie, with the actor Alun Armstrong as the voice of the Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette.

Using archive and contemporary footage and audio, Asunder collages the stories of people from Tyneside and Wearside to uncover just what life was like on the home front, with bombs falling on Britain for the first time, conscientious objectors sentenced to death, and women working as doctors, tram conductors and footballers. The narrative moves from an Edwardian golden era, in which sport grew in popularity and aircraft and cars pointed to a bright new future, to a war that horrifically reversed this progress. In the Battle of the Somme, British, French and German armies fought one of the most traumatic battles in military history. Over the course of just four months, more than one million soldiers were captured, wounded or killed in a confrontation of unimaginable horror.

Other upcoming screenings:

21 June 2017
QUAD Derby, School
screening at 10:00, and Evening screening at 19:00
plus Q&A with Director/co-producer Esther Johnson

10 September 2017
Filmhouse Edinburgh, 15:30
plus Q&A with Director/co-producer Esther Johnson

For more information about other upcoming screenings click here.

Esther Johnson works at the intersection of artist moving image and documentary. Her poetic portraits focus on marginal worlds, revealing resonant stories that may otherwise remain hidden or ignored. Work has been exhibited internationally in 40 countries, and has also featured on television and radio. In 2012 Johnson won the Philip Leverhulme Prize in Performing and Visual Arts for young scholars. She is a Professor of Film & Media Art at Sheffield Hallam University. Find out more about Esther’s work here.

Asunder is co-commissioned by Sunderland Cultural Partnership and 14–18 NOW: WW1 Centenary Art Commissions, supported by The National Lottery through Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Sunderland Business Improvement District, Culture Bridge North East and Sir James Knott Trust.

Asunder is on Twitter @1916asunder.