From Hometown Screenings to Colombia!

After a sold-out screening in Oxford, Rave On For The Avon is coming to my hometown of Liverpool Sunday 18th May at FACT Picturehouse Cinema then off to Colombia with Wildscreen Festival and the British Council.

Playing your hometown is the most wonderful thing. I’m Liverpool born and bred but Oxford has been another hometown close to my heart. It’s where my Dad is from and where I have lived when worked as a filmmaker for the loveliest community of creatives and campaigners at Oxfam and Angel Sharp Media. 

In the years visiting family then living in Oxford I was often drawn to the Thames. I kayaked along it on lazy summer nights, sipped a cold beer next to it from a riverside pub. I have even figured out how to not to drop a hefty camera in the river filming student punters.

But I never ever thought to swim in it. 

Where do you even start if you don’t know anyone who swims and are unsure of how to swim safely? 

I learned to swim in nature in Bristol where friends showed me the right places to give it a go. I even graduated from a summer swimmer to winter after seeing that manic, euphoric look in the eyes of the winter swimmers I filmed for the documentary. My friend and creative partner Aggie (Co-Producer on the film and also features in the film joining a group of citizen scientists) would somehow draw me to the Bristol Avon on cold, rainy winter mornings. She calls herself a cold water convert and now evangelist and it worked on me. We would dip in and feel truly alive, having had an adventure before work!

When I confirmed the Oxford screening I contacted Oxford Uni’s Wild swimming society. Could they take part in the Q&A to give people an idea of the local swim scene and most importantly… take me out for a swim! 

President of the society Martha obliged and set up a swim date with her group. That blustery morning a group gathered to swim at Port Meadow and it was a joy even though I yelped as I got in thinking I had trod on a fish. Turns out it was a submerged welly. It was cold enough to feel refreshed, warm enough to go for a proper swim. 

Later at the screening I was sick to my stomach! Thankfully it was from the nerves and not from ingesting anything dodgy. Knowing that so many talented creatives I had worked with would be in the audience who knew me when I was a growing filmmaker at Oxfam who had big ideas yet sometimes got the camera settings wrong.  All I saw were smiles during the Q&A so the nerves calmed.

We had a fantastic discussion with Q&A guests Martha and Caroline Dennett, founder of #DontPayForDirtyWater campaign. Caroline’s activism is multifaceted. From refusing to pay the sewage part of her water bill, to taking Wessex Water big wigs to see her beloved patches of rivers and bays that they are polluting to taking citizen science samples. 

Caroline shared her reflections on the film;

This was the first time I'd seen the film, and I was blown away! Not just by the story of the river and the people fighting to protect it, which is so beautifully told, but by the production quality which is excellent, truly cinematic.

It's fun, moving and inspiring, and reflects the humanity we find in each other.

Community is not lost, it is thriving, against the odds, and this film shows us the power and the joy of together.

Caroline is sharing her story at our next screening in Bristol at Rockaway Park Sunday 25th May which we can't wait for.

Thank you to everyone who came to the screening! Let's keep raving to save our rivers!