The Waterlight Film Premiere

Local historian and conservationist Bruce Huett, a core member of the Waterlight Project team, updates us on the latest successful milestone — the local (and national!) premiere of the film we’ve been working on throughout the project.

Over fifty people crammed into the upper room at The Plough in Shepreth to watch the first showing of the Waterlight film of the river Mel. Expectations were high as many of those present had helped to fund the project. After the excited hum of attendees exchanging experiences of the river and their involvement in the film all went silent as the lights dimmed and the opening sequence started with gentle sound and evocative images of the river. All was quiet for the forty-odd minutes of the film. When it ended there was a spontaneous eruption of applause and the lights went up to reveal an audience enraptured by the film.

A brief discussion period elicited only praise for the production and stimulated some discussion on issues of water levels and problems of extraction and potential danger to wildlife. Representatives from the River Mel Restoration Group were able to give the audience the benefit of their extensive understanding of the issues and the efforts they were taking to ensure the Environment Agency was aware of the situation and were taking action.

We were lucky to have representatives from local conservation groups including the Melwood Conservation Group, Cam Valley Forum and the Cambridge Conservation Initiative.

The Melwood representative described the film as “really lovely- actually very moving at times! We thought that the balance between speech, poetry, music and visuals was just right — and the poetry was especially enjoyed.”

The chairman of Cam Valley Forum, an organisation supporting river conservation in the Cam Valley, posted on our website “Your poetry and the Waterlight film were greatly enjoyed by everyone. I thought the eclectic mix of genres in the film was so special and genuinely unique in my experience. It was a wonderful word and picture image of ‘place’ and human belonging, of local history, social history, natural history and much more. The weave of the stream’s images and sounds with your descriptive poetry was technically excellent and deeply memorable. I can’t wait to see it again.”

The wanting to see it again was something expressed by several of the attendees and we are hoping for a good attendance at the next showing a the Melbourn Community Hall at 8pm on 25th July.

We were very glad that many of those who had sponsored or helped to fund the film were present. They were unanimous in their appreciation that the money had been well used to provide a community asset. The representative from TPP (a major science research company in Melbourn, who was a significant sponsor) lived locally and said that the film would encourage him to spend more time with his family exploring this wonderful local environmental resource. He described the film as “very loving, a visual caress”. The company wrote: “it sounds like the perfect piece of history for the village to treasure!” — exactly what we were trying to achieve: a heritage resource as well as something to be enjoyed now.

Others described the content as “captivating”, “mesmerising”. The event also provided opportunities to investigate wider showing of the film and there is a possibility that it will be shown at DEFRA (the government department responsible for the environment), at a Cambridge Conservation Initiative venue in Cambridge and a Cam Valley Forum event as well as festivals etc.

We were very appreciative of the support given by the owners of The Plough. They were very welcoming and supportive and also helped out with ensuring the AV worked well, etc. An excellent venue with a great range of beer and beverages!

We are delighted that this first step in the film distribution has been so successful and we are now planning exciting further distribution plans. Watch this space! In fact, as I write this we have excellent feedback from fellow project team member, filmmaker James Murray-White, who has been showing the film during a visit north: 

“Very positive screening here this afternoon at Expressing the Earth, with the Scottish Geopoetics Institute here in the Borders… Most folk loved the range of ways we covered the river, and the organiser raved about it showing off the best of British folklore culture, something he craves as a Gaelic speaker from the Isle of Luing. And one of the participants, a film-poet, was in tears: turns out she grew up in Melbourne and it took her right back to a happy childhood in the Mel! She’d love to join us for a screening some time, when she’s back in Cambridge.”

Included as part of the screening was this extract from the film: Waste features Clare Crossman reading one of her poems to highlight problems of waste and pollution of our watercourses, such as the Mel.

You can find more of Clare’s poems for the Waterlight Project — and poems from other contributors — at our Waterlight Poems page. And Clare’s website includes many more of her poems.

For details of future screenings of the Waterlight film, keep an eye on our Upcoming Events page or sign up for news via the Receive Updates link on our Contact Us page.