Professor Esther Johnson’s ‘Asunder’ screening at Nottingham’s Broadway Cinema – Thursday 1st July 2021

There will be a special screening of Professor Esther Johnson’s WW1 feature film ASUNDER at Nottingham’s Broadway Cinema this Thursday 1 July, 5:30pm.

The screening will be followed by a #ReclaimTheFrame Q&A with Esther Johnson, Jill Oakland, (Chairwoman of the Beeston & District Local History Society), and hosted by Birds’ Eye View Film’ Director Mia Bays. The event will be rounded off with a live acoustic performance from folk singer and community organiser Julie Russell, singing a Nottingham version of traditional folk song ’The Rigs of Sunderland Fair’ that  features in the film.

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. The North East was in the front line, thanks to its shipyards and munitions factories. Using footage from 96 separate archive films and contemporary footage and audio, ASUNDER collages the stories of people from Tyneside and Wearside to uncover 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 narration for the film is voiced by journalist Kate Adie, with the actor Alum Armstrong as the voice of the Sunderland Daily Echo & Shipping Gazette.

The film team created a free learning resource for schools in which children are encouraged to create their own songs inspired by the stories researched for the film: http://asunder1916.uk/learning-resource

This special event marks the anniversary of the first day of the battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916 and also 1 July 1918 when 8 tons of TNT exploded in The National Shell Filling Factory no.6, Chilwell, killing 139 people, of whom only 32 could be positively identified, with a further 250 injured.

Reclaim The Frame is a mission to bring ever-greater audiences to films by women to widen and enrich cinema’s perspective of the world, run by charity Birds’ Eye View, and backed by the BFI’s Audience Fund. To learn more and join the #ReclaimTheFrame mission and receive free cinema tickets, discount codes and other film goodies go to Bit.ly/BEVRTF

 

**PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT WILL START PROMPTLY AT THE ADVERTISED TIME**

Further information:  

https://www.birds-eye-view.co.uk/event/asunder/ 

https://www.broadway.org.uk/whats-on/asunder-qa 

http://asunder1916.uk

http://blanchepictures.com