The Deptford Storytelling Project connected people of different ages, languages and backgrounds to make films about their lives in and around Deptford. This screening shows 9 of the original short films together with new introductions by the filmmakers and celebrates 1 year since we came together to watch the films at Deptford Cinema’s former venue on Deptford Broadway.

Deptford Storytelling Film Booklet for the online screening.

Deptford Storytelling Project Virtual Screening can be viewed here.

Deptford Storytelling filmmakers created a piece for the Deptford Cinema Journal.

Deptford Storytelling Project: Celebrating One Year

Project Directors

Jim Anderson
Vicky Macleroy
Lucy Rogers

Deptford Storytelling Project 2020

A multilingual community film-making project celebrating Deptford’s rich history and diverse community. Different languages, voices, poetry, dance and ceremonies are used by the filmmakers to tell their stories about families, friendships and communities.

Deptford Storytelling Project 2020 Film Booklet

Water & Light

by Flora Guitton & Sara Shahwan

Poet Farah Chamma, along with her fellow Palestinian artists Ruba Shamshoum and Kareem Samara came to celebrate London’s diversity in a performance called ‘Mai w Dai’, meaning ‘Water and Light’ in Levantine colloquial Arabic. Just as light glimmers on the surface of water, Farah’s poetry flutters at the tunes of Ruba’s voice and the strings of Kareem’s guitar. Fusing pieces the Arabic song ‘Lighthouse’ and the English poem ‘London’, this video oscillates between the serenity of water and the speed of light.

Walk this way

by Vanessa Crouch

Michael Williams and Vanessa G Crouch have known each other for 8 years. Both of them believe that life has got better for them personally over those years. Fed up with all the bad news stories that come out of the local area, Vanessa accompanies Michael through one week of his life to see whether other people feel the same way.

Friendship

by Che Orjiekwe & Khumbo Kamana

A short film with voiceover of how a friendship builds between two people. It links religion to friendship and shows how they work together.

Jellyfish Nightmare

by Margaret Jennings

Wild Nurturing: Urban Wildway Rooutes

by Margaret Jennings and Jun Koya

An exploration of the psychological shift from human centred to a wildlife centredness, empowered by community gathering and action, in the moment of climate emergency. This film embraces silent walks, tree planting ceremonies and personal tree stories handwritten on recycled paper, shared, displayed and archived. 

Doorway to Tuat

by Zöe Neufville

Hawa is drifting towards the inevitable journey’s end. She meets three strange oracles. They give her a riddle that no one in Deptford has solved before. She must undertake to meet the Spirit of the Water who is hanging out at the mouth of the Thames by gold, blood, salt, sugar or even death …

Vietnamese Lunar New Year in Deptford

by Miles Farrell & Quynh Nguyen, Thanh Nguyen, Minh Tran, Ngoc Anh Tran (Vietnamese Family Association)

The London VietSchool tells the story of how the local Vietnamese community celebrate their roots, culture, language and heritage and asks the younger generation to step forward to continue these traditions and feel confident about their identity.

Retracing Family Footsteps

by Silvia Harvey

This short film is about Aimée Sterque’s photographs of French colonies in the late 19th century, and how those have been rediscovered by his descendants. Looking back through this history has brought together generations in discovering a sense of identity and finding common passions.

Vida

by Hannah Davis, Lucy Wilson & Zaida Florian

Revisiting the life of a Dominican woman through her experiences of migration and life in this country. Her story is one that is joyful, even through pain.

Carry On Trading (see online screening)

By Adriana Kytkova

My Bad Sister (see online screening)

By Joe Magowan

Deptford Storytelling Project is funded by Language Acts
and World Making. It is run in partnership with Deptford
Cinema, Goldsmiths, University of London and the Albany.