Lucy Thane, plays Saffron Hill, she also wrote and is directing this production
Saffron Hill is a Londoner in a state of heartbreak and alienation, oblivious to the various by turns amazing, terrible, surprising, shocking, beautiful gentrification, eviction, creativity, community, violence, love, indifference, sex, dancing and singing happening around her
How Lucy has developed this character:
I AM NOT A VILLAGE was once called INSIDE I'M DANCING (before that name was "nicked" by another movie). It was based on a tiny thought on a tube train.. with such cool "apparatus" all around why do we limit the ways we interact with our environment to (in the main) sitting, standing, walking, running? Why don't we dance, perform acrobats, sashe, wiggle, emote etc more as children are far more often likely to do? Why is singing and dancing only for special occasions and not for everyday life (At least in cold northern countries like mine)?
Soon after I came across a dance group (Booming Cherries) led me into many years of substantial exploration of creativity in more 3-dimensional, live and kinaesthetic forms.
Dance
Improvisation: the doors between different modes of thinking, how for one person a movement can be stimulus to an image, while for another sounds or words might be inspired, while movement comes forth easier via the presentation of a concept or thought.
Live Art, character based promenades and installations which invite, but do not prescribe curiosity and intervention by the general public
My essential pleasure with live and improvised work is that it responds to the chance and everyday
My essential pleasure in making film video is that it gives one the opportunity to stand back and reflect, interpret and cogitate these chance occurrences.
It also captures moments for future perusal
I began to sense an essential irony in the practice of filmmaking which records and represents realities by often interrupting or holding up that reality.
I want to bring chance encounters into filmmaking practice
Also to use the common modern practice of members of the public interacting with their environment and neighbours by recording them with their phones
I want to engage with that interaction; to invite people who choose to record the spectacles we create to contribute and participate in our project
I have been (in this order) Film-maker, Educator, Social Activist, Dancer, Performance Artist, Storyteller, Live Film-maker..
I am not a Village. I am a walk in the park. I am the kids I go to school with. I am not a building. I am where suburban young folk go to party. I am where their parents don’t live anymore. I am where parents raise kids. I am where children grow up and people die and some people grow old first.
I am failure and success. I am a decision made and broken. I am your education and your revolution. I am a teenaged child with red eyes. I am fear of him. I am mothers and fathers cleaning high offices late at night. I am the dead people back home. I am a cappuccino drunk at leisure. I think I’m too good for a job in a coffee shop.
I am cheap headphones and a sideways glance. I am a dirty joke at the grocer’s cart. I am a nervous backwards glance. I am where you fell in love and don’t want your children to grow. I am excitement and “on the edge”. I’m a youth worker encouraging my charges to fulfill my stereotypes. I am large women in Turkish baths. I am a bearded father taking his kids to school. I am shouting into my phone.
I am drunk. I am on religion. I am missing the bus. But there will be one come soon. I am fear and Stranger danger. I have a job in a coffee shop. I am where over half the world’ population live now. I am coming to your town soon. I am being looked at you like that. I am shops and taxis and gutters and cars.
I am a wicked gig. I am a river. I am fear of the future. I am slowly sweeping the gutter. I am a pigeon, a rat, and a bed-bug. I am unsustainable in this form. I am bad memories of what I ran away from. I am an armpit on the train. I am homesick. I am nobody who cares. I am a row of shops long gone. I am moved out to the suburbs. I am dreams of the country life. I am dreams about my country.
I am kids playing in the street. I am where adults fear their children to play. I am too many things to take in at one time. I am the ability still to care. I am a drug overdose and a great party. I am a woman who smells of wee. I am the children of the wealthy. I am construction that is never completed. I am fucking total strangers. I am a new sound.
I am an ever broadening divide. I am sexual liberation. I am out of my mind. I am experiments and gambles. I am what produced the book you’re reading. I am a dead girl in a chicken shop. I am a show that changed your life. I am the experience that you create. I infected you and I knew what was happening. I am afraid to go down that street.
I am ancient cultures running dry. I am a child dressed as batman. I am multinational advertising. I am a happening. I am no rent control. I am landlords who live in the country. I am walking home at dawn. I am a flower market. I am a simulacrum.
I am a façade. I am real. I am Gas, Coke, Coal and Oil. I am a machine without a manual. I find it hard to grow up. I am to blame. I find it very easy to grow. I am not just European. I am pregnant with possibility. I am a man who no longer has his home or business. I am a can of cider.
I’m a bad back from running on pavements. I am a Lebanese kebab. I am a new dance routine. I am a good idea that still needs work. I am need of change. I am an adult afraid of children. I am an overcrowded flat. I am a paving stone. I am broken. I am falling over. I am either your friend or your enemy. I have to move ‘cos my benefit’s been capped.
I am our eyes looking away on the escalator. I go to work quite tired. I could try to quell my fears. I grow my own food. I am looking for a place to think. I am dirt I am the sewers. I am plastic, concrete and foam. I am nucleur energy. I am a drink of water. I am a cup of coffee. I am another cup of coffee. I am coming to your town soon.
Back to all cast
I AM NOT A VILLAGE was once called INSIDE I'M DANCING (before that name was "nicked" by another movie). It was based on a tiny thought on a tube train.. with such cool "apparatus" all around why do we limit the ways we interact with our environment to (in the main) sitting, standing, walking, running? Why don't we dance, perform acrobats, sashe, wiggle, emote etc more as children are far more often likely to do? Why is singing and dancing only for special occasions and not for everyday life (At least in cold northern countries like mine)?
Soon after I came across a dance group (Booming Cherries) led me into many years of substantial exploration of creativity in more 3-dimensional, live and kinaesthetic forms.
Dance
Improvisation: the doors between different modes of thinking, how for one person a movement can be stimulus to an image, while for another sounds or words might be inspired, while movement comes forth easier via the presentation of a concept or thought.
Live Art, character based promenades and installations which invite, but do not prescribe curiosity and intervention by the general public
My essential pleasure with live and improvised work is that it responds to the chance and everyday
My essential pleasure in making film video is that it gives one the opportunity to stand back and reflect, interpret and cogitate these chance occurrences.
It also captures moments for future perusal
I began to sense an essential irony in the practice of filmmaking which records and represents realities by often interrupting or holding up that reality.
I want to bring chance encounters into filmmaking practice
Also to use the common modern practice of members of the public interacting with their environment and neighbours by recording them with their phones
I want to engage with that interaction; to invite people who choose to record the spectacles we create to contribute and participate in our project
I have been (in this order) Film-maker, Educator, Social Activist, Dancer, Performance Artist, Storyteller, Live Film-maker..
I am not a village Saffron Hill in London from Lucy Thane on Vimeo.
I am not a Village. I am a walk in the park. I am the kids I go to school with. I am not a building. I am where suburban young folk go to party. I am where their parents don’t live anymore. I am where parents raise kids. I am where children grow up and people die and some people grow old first.
I am failure and success. I am a decision made and broken. I am your education and your revolution. I am a teenaged child with red eyes. I am fear of him. I am mothers and fathers cleaning high offices late at night. I am the dead people back home. I am a cappuccino drunk at leisure. I think I’m too good for a job in a coffee shop.
I am cheap headphones and a sideways glance. I am a dirty joke at the grocer’s cart. I am a nervous backwards glance. I am where you fell in love and don’t want your children to grow. I am excitement and “on the edge”. I’m a youth worker encouraging my charges to fulfill my stereotypes. I am large women in Turkish baths. I am a bearded father taking his kids to school. I am shouting into my phone.
I am drunk. I am on religion. I am missing the bus. But there will be one come soon. I am fear and Stranger danger. I have a job in a coffee shop. I am where over half the world’ population live now. I am coming to your town soon. I am being looked at you like that. I am shops and taxis and gutters and cars.
I am a wicked gig. I am a river. I am fear of the future. I am slowly sweeping the gutter. I am a pigeon, a rat, and a bed-bug. I am unsustainable in this form. I am bad memories of what I ran away from. I am an armpit on the train. I am homesick. I am nobody who cares. I am a row of shops long gone. I am moved out to the suburbs. I am dreams of the country life. I am dreams about my country.
I am kids playing in the street. I am where adults fear their children to play. I am too many things to take in at one time. I am the ability still to care. I am a drug overdose and a great party. I am a woman who smells of wee. I am the children of the wealthy. I am construction that is never completed. I am fucking total strangers. I am a new sound.
I am an ever broadening divide. I am sexual liberation. I am out of my mind. I am experiments and gambles. I am what produced the book you’re reading. I am a dead girl in a chicken shop. I am a show that changed your life. I am the experience that you create. I infected you and I knew what was happening. I am afraid to go down that street.
I am ancient cultures running dry. I am a child dressed as batman. I am multinational advertising. I am a happening. I am no rent control. I am landlords who live in the country. I am walking home at dawn. I am a flower market. I am a simulacrum.
I am a façade. I am real. I am Gas, Coke, Coal and Oil. I am a machine without a manual. I find it hard to grow up. I am to blame. I find it very easy to grow. I am not just European. I am pregnant with possibility. I am a man who no longer has his home or business. I am a can of cider.
I’m a bad back from running on pavements. I am a Lebanese kebab. I am a new dance routine. I am a good idea that still needs work. I am need of change. I am an adult afraid of children. I am an overcrowded flat. I am a paving stone. I am broken. I am falling over. I am either your friend or your enemy. I have to move ‘cos my benefit’s been capped.
I am our eyes looking away on the escalator. I go to work quite tired. I could try to quell my fears. I grow my own food. I am looking for a place to think. I am dirt I am the sewers. I am plastic, concrete and foam. I am nucleur energy. I am a drink of water. I am a cup of coffee. I am another cup of coffee. I am coming to your town soon.