This short (20 minute) film has been made by artist Michael Szpakowski working with two classes of year 4 pupils at Southwark Park school in Bermondsey.
Freely adapted from King Hrolf Kraki’s Saga it is a grim tale of internecine bloodletting in Viking times told in the childrens’ own words and acted out by them.
“Of all the pieces of “outreach” – I’d rather call it co-constructed – work I’ve done over the last thirty years, this piece comes closest to satisfying both the most important requirements of such work. The young people are totally engaged in the process and proud of the final product. Also and more importantly, I feel that it is aesthetically satisfying as any work I make entirely alone; so the finished piece is both a universal fable which tips its hat in homage to Brecht, Bresson and Straub-Huillet and also a hymn to the energy, wit and resourcefulness of the eight to nine year old and to an inner London multicultural school community at its best.”
Public screening at BFI- NFT2 4pm Thursday 23th June 2011
http://www.bfi.org.uk/
Seats are limited. Please contact ale[AT]furtherfield[DOT]org
Artist: Michael Szpakowski
Designer: Sophie Lovell Smith
A Furtherfield Outreach Project
Partners: Creative Partnerships, A New Direction, Southwark Park Primary School