Documentary Week I

Yesterday marked the first day of a new venture. Thanks to a collaboration between Chocolate Films and the London metropolitan Archives, a course in documentary film making for young people aged 16-25. The first session tought me all the ways in which documentaries can be used, the different methods they use to communicate a point and types of message. I never knew there was so much to it. I love documentaries because they inject information into the homes of people who otherwise would have no access to it. Documentaries, for me, always have to have a distinct educational, worth while message. I took the opportunity to browse the Archives to research labour rights in fashion within the history of the industry in the UK. I found loads of burning documents about labour unions and a document regarding imports from Africa to stores such as Harrods. This document is being kept closed under contract untill 2041. Interesting.  Due to the tangents i live my life on, i ended up straying into human rights, child labour, and a history of child abuse in the UK. All I could access was the fact that these documents exist. But im hoping soon this will become a direction for my further research.  Anyway, thats deep. I’m going to document the document making on here every week and hopefully my tangent will lead somewhere.

Fair Trade Chairs

Well this is something new for me.  I’m not going to say much, ill let the piece speak for its self. But basically I found two chairs as I was clearing out my shed and decided to through myself into furniture rehabilitation. This one is upholstered with fair trade cotton and recycled fabrics. The cotton is produced in Nepal by a fair trade group called the Association of Craft Producers. You can check out their products at www.acp.org.np or read about my research trip to Nepal in one of the tabs to your right.  This chair is making up part of an exhibition at Usurp Art Gallery in North Harrow from 02.june untill 10.june.