Carol Salter - Micro Residency Artist
Carol* was interested in exploring the notion of home within her Real Estate micro residency through her film making practice, what home means to people and how they identify with it. She was also interested in
“…how people survive day to day against the UK’s harsh economic landscape. Where do they find hope in an increasingly challenging, unsettled time and the isolation or displacement that derives from this. But I am interested in the moments of warmth and humour within a community and their connections to their present and past stories and their rich histories. “
Carol spent 18 months working with Real Estate resident artist Ocean Farini, and the communities of Fleetwood to unearth the story that eventually became the film ‘Left Coast’. The film received further funding from the Uncertain Kingdom programme to become one of 20 films made as a unique portrait of our nation today.
Based on Carols observations of the food banks as being the over-looked, underfunded 5th emergency service, not only in the northwest but all over the country, Left Coast is a study of the volunteers who hand out kindness and food to those who are in need of it. The film observes the lived reality for many people, using political commentary to bring the stark differences between political rhetoric and everyday reality into focus. This is a story from the Wyre coast but a truth for many towns and cities across the UK.
The film is currently being shown through online platforms as part of The Uncertain Kingdom Volume 2. Unfortunately, the COVID 19 pandemic meant that national, regional and local showings had to be cancelled.
Watch online – BFIPlayer – theb.fi/TUKv2
https://theuncertainkingdom.co.uk/watch-at-home
You can see a trailer for the film here.
*Carol Salter is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. Her critically acclaimed feature Almost Heaven – a tender portrait of a teenager training to become a mortician in China – won Best Documentary at the British Independent Film Awards 2017 and was double-nominated for the Glashütte Documentary Award and Crystal Bear at Berlinale. Her previous films include Unearthing the Pen (2011), which won ten awards including Best Documentary at Encounters and the Al Jazeera Golden Award. She is a Doc Society Fellow and recent recipient of the East End Film Festival Transit Award.
