Half Lives (2024) gets its big screen debut at HOME, Manchester (
@homemcr ) at 1pm on 1st February and goes on display at Jwllrs, Morecambe (
@jwllrs_ ) from 27th January to 27th March.
The film takes a spin around Sellafield Nuclear Power Station: a giant concrete mirror ball on the west coast of Cumbria, currently in the early phases of a 100 year decommissioning process. Interviews with the plant’s internal LGBTQ+ network tease out unlikely parallels between the work of decommissioning (of building, architecturally, extraordinarily safe spaces to store radioactive material) and the work of creating safe social space for queer people within a historically unwelcoming industry.
If you’d like to join me at a screening (or watch online from afar) drop a line and I’ll send you in the right direction 🪩💫
With many thanks to:
Matt, Holly and Andi Elizabeth for sharing their stories of working at Sellafield (
@sellafield )
Elizabeth Norton of the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency (
@the_nda_group ) for her additional insight
Johanna Odersky (
@ikukojohanna ) for the beautiful score
Harriet and Rob Fraser (
@somewhere_now.here ), Sue Mackay & the team at Florence Arts (
@florencearts ) and Diane Ward at Cumberland Council (
@cumberlandcouncil1 ) for supporting the final stages of the project and organising its first public exhibition alongside sound and video installations by Jamie Jenkinson (
@jamie_jenkinson_ ) and Cristina Picchi (
@cripicchi ) last October
Aldo Rinaldi (aldo_rinaldi72), Will Rees, University of Cumbria (
@cumbriauni ) and Cumberland Council for commissioning the work
Arts Council England (
@aceagrams ) for funding the residency and resulting film
Emma Sumner (
@emmasumner___ ) for supporting with the initial application many moons ago
Antoine Viviani (
@_antoineviviani ) for the photogrammetry tutorial
Reed Rushes (
@reedrushes ) for lending an outside eye to the final edit
Jocelyn McGregor (
@jocelynjmcg ) for location scouting and transport
Alice Wilde at HOME and Amy Dickson (
@a.c.dickson ) & Jamie Jenkinson at Jwllrs for including me in their upcoming programmes
