Adam Lewis Jacob
People Meeting in a Room
2019, 18’, UK
A film by Adam Lewis Jacob
People Meeting in a Room reflects on collective film making and workers’ activism. Developed over a year, it connects the histories of activists and film makers associated with the Birmingham Trade Union Resource Centre in the 1980s with a group of contemporary collaborators. The contributors interpret archival films and collective actions through animation, performance and conversation.
I feel that, maybe, every time you reveal something, you might be shutting down something else; it has the potential to lessen the impact.... Everything that I feel about the film will be different in a year.
Adam Lewis Jacob
The fact that you’re using video and you’re seeing how the editing works, you never look at a television programme in the same way, you never look particularly at a news report in the same way. It became immediately obvious how you can bias a report, how you can snip out the thing that somebody really, really wanted to say and make them say things that they never intended to say in the first place.
Marian Hall
People meeting in a room is the most transformative thing, just full stop. I think it’s that sense where you can hear the tonality of somebody’s voice, you can hear where they’re at with something, you can actually have that meeting point that is real.
Cathy Wade
If you are a politically-conscious person in England, you know, there are, two different Englands. There is an England of the capitalists, the England of the racists, the England of the Brexiteers, the England of the extreme right, and the other England is the fighting England, the trade unionist England, the left England, the socialist England.
Muhammad Idrish
Adam Lewis Jacob lives and works in Glasgow. Exhibitions and screenings include: Studio 55, Seoul, Korea; Collective, Edinburgh; Duolon Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai; LUX New Work, London; Glasgow International; CCA Glasgow; and Peak, London. He studied at Glasgow School of Art and is co-founder of the exhibition space Celine in Glasgow.
Marian Hall worked for TURC Video, at Birmingham’s Trade Union Resource Centre.
Muhammad Idrish was actively involved in setting up the West Midlands Anti Deportation Campaign and the National Coalition of Anti Deportation Campaigns.
Ranbir Bains directed the campaign video for the West Midlands Anti Deportation Campaign.
Ian Sergeant is a project associate at Vivid Projects and director of Ort Gallery Birmingham. He was a founder member of Black Pyramid Film and Video, Bristol.
Cathy Wade is an artist, concerned with how art can be created and distributed in collaborative partnerships and through the creation of commons. She is Black Hole Club producer at Vivid Projects and Course Leader for MA Arts in Education Practices at BCU.
Jason Kerley is an Illustrator and Animator with a focus on the wiggly and the squiggly. Whether still or moving, Jason aims to make his drawings visceral and fun.
Alicia Matthews is a sound artist and musician. She is part of the duo L.A.Ps and produces solo music and hosts an NTS show as Sue Zuki
Christian Noelle Charles is a Black Female Artist currently living and working in Glasgow, Scotland. A Syracuse, New York native, Christian's work is an exploration of female representation and self-love in a contemporary world. Christian takes inspiration from today's pop culture, modern performance techniques, and personal experiences..
Laurie Pitt is a musician and percussionist from Glasgow. His current projects include the Modern Institute, Anarchy 99, and Banana Oil.
Tony Morris is a Glaswegian dilettante; and very comfortable being one.
Barry Burns is a radio producer, experimental musician and ex office worker.
Read extracts from the transcription of People Meeting in a Room here.
Read what Adam says about People Meeting in a Room here.
Credits
Featuring
Ranbir Bains
Marian Hall
Muhammad Idrish
Ian Sergeant
Cathy Wade
Barry Burns
Christian Noelle Charles
Alicia Matthews
Tony Morris
Laurie Pitt
Animation
Jason Kerley
Additional Camera
Alex Storey Gordon
Additional Sound
Tim Fraser
Producer
Elizabeth Murphy
Archive footage by kind permission of TURC Video and
VIVID archive courtesy of Vivid Projects, Yasmeen Baig-Clifford and Marian Hall
Additional TURC print material courtesy of Marian Hall
Animated characters by kind permission of Steve Bell
Thanks
Geraldine Egan
Sean Elder
Heather Rogers
Susannah Stark
Mark Vernon
Everyone at Vivid Projects
Executive Producers
Abigail Addison and Gary Thomas for Animate Projects
Yasmeen Baig-Clifford for Vivid Projects
