Esther Johnson
a ROLE to PLAY
2019, 17’, UK
A film by Esther Johnson
a ROLE to PLAY brings together the lived experiences and dreams of Bolsover residents, one of the most deprived towns in the middle of England. Working with Bolsover Freedom Community Project food bank users, volunteers, adult reading group members, and former Bolsover MP (1970-2019) Dennis Skinner, the film tells stories of the impact of economic changes in post-industrial Bolsover, a Derbyshire constituency where coal was once king.
Throughout the making, I was thinking about the national and the local, the effect of national politics on the local. What does it mean, actually on the ground, for people in their everyday lives? The inclusion of Dennis Skinner became the link between the national and the local.
Esther Johnson
Some things are in you from the start aren't they? I’ve always had a love of books. They’re old friends. And I loved reading and wanted to teach kids to read. I met Bernard at the library. We were friends for two years before we went to a Communist dance in Bingley. I mean, I’m a raving Socialist but the Communists were rubbish dancers. However, the food was good.
Jeanette Haigh
Jobs have come and gone. I’ve just got on with it. One job, I had to sort trays out of millions of screws. All day just doing that.
That was the most boring job.
But the hardest thing is getting the job in the first place.
Stephen Cotton
1970. I got elected, and six o’clock the day after I went to work. I didn’t have two ha’pennies to rub together.
I hadn’t got a bank account.
I hadn’t got a car. I went to work because I didn’t know when I was going to get paid in Parliament. Nobody sent me a letter saying turn up on such and such a day. I just had to keep looking in the papers to see when swearing in started. So I kept going to the pit.
Dennis Skinner
Read the transcription of a ROLE to PLAY here.
Read what Esther says about a ROLE to PLAY here.
Read Here are the words of the reading bank by Ian McMillan for Bolsover Reading Group here.
Visit the Bolsover Reading Group website here.
Read In the Shadow of the Beast by Esther Johnson, published in Tribune, 1 May 2020, here.
Esther Johnson lives in Nottingham. She works with moving image, audio and photography. Screenings include: London Film Festival; CPH:DOX; IDFA, Amsterdam; Sheffield Doc/Fest and Tate galleries. Recent projects include SHIPS in the SKY, a social history arts project in and about her hometown, Hull, and the archive feature film Asunder with live score, commissioned by 14–18 Now. She studied at the Royal College of Art and is Professor of Film and Media Arts at Sheffield Hallam University.
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Stephen Cotton’s engagement with the Freedom Community Project began as a client of the food bank; he went on to volunteer and then secure a job there.
Adrian Drury is a freelance tattooist and zero-hour contract worker. He also plays electric guitar and has been in several bands.
Jeanette Haigh is a retired primary school teacher and a grandmother of four. She runs Freedom Community Project’s weekly Bolsover reading group.
Serena Hammond is a performing arts student. She has been a carer for her mother Linda, a member of Bolsover reading group, since she was a teenager.
Dennis Skinner is trade unionist. An ex-miner, he was MP for Bolsover from 1970 - 2019.
Credits
Directed, produced and edited by
Esther Johnson
Featuring
Stephen Cotton
Adrian Drury
Jeanette Haigh
Serena Hammond
Dennis Skinner
Cinematography
Dominic Green
Esther Johnson
Sound Design
Chu-Li Shewring
Sound Recording
Esther Johnson
Darryl Peat
Music
Flow my Tears (Lachrimae Pavane)
by John Dowland
Performed and arranged by Adam D J Taylor
Cantatio Music Publishing Ltd 2019
Thanks
Freedom Centre users, volunteers and staff
Bolsover Castle
English Heritage
Bernard Haigh
John Platts
Past Lives Project
Jaimie Boxx
Shealeigh Clark
Emily Tubb
The community of Bolsover
Executive Producers
Abigail Addison and Gary Thomas for Animate Projects
Amy Smith for Junction Arts
