First World War Archives

Selected for IWM Short Film Festival again!

Digital Drama’s short film Silk, Satin & Suffrage has been selected for the 2018 IWM Short Film Festival, which will showcase 28 shortlisted films that present challenging, inspiring and experimental responses to past and contemporary conflict. The free Festival, taking place at IWM London from 25-29 October 2018, presents documentaries, dramas and animations by student, amateur and professional filmmakers.

Helen Upcraft, IWM Short Film Festival Director, says: “We’ve been really impressed by the quality of this year’s entries, and it was a real challenge to create the 2018 official selection. The festival programme covers a huge range of topics, from the Spanish Civil War to Suffragette Banners, explored through many genres including animations, dramas and factual documentaries. We are very excited to be a part of the Making A New World season with our Special Category focusing on films exploring the First World War.”

Digital Drama Producer Alison Ramsey, who won the Short Film Festival’s Best Use of IWM Archive Material with the film Deeds not Words: Suffragette Surgeons of WWI in 2017, says: “The award has been great for our production company Digital Drama. Seeing our winning film tour venues across the country as part of Women’s Work 100, a programme led by IWM’s First World War Centenary Partnership, has been amazing. Furthermore, I feel that the award has helped raise our profile as filmmakers because it really is a marker of quality in the field.”

Watch Alison’s shortlisted film for this year Silk, Satin & Suffrage opposite and visit the project website.

Further details of the IWM Short Film Festival: www.iwm.org.uk/film-festival

By Kate Valentine|2018-10-10T11:49:29+00:0010 October 2018|Heritage, Videos|0 Comments

Banners and Bandages – WWI Suffragette Hospital

Digital Drama has been awarded a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to create a multi-media project focusing on the Endell Street Military Hospital.

TICKETS NOW ON SALE FOR IMMERSIVE DRAMA – DEEDS NOT WORDS – GO TO WEBPAGE

Click here to go to the project website pages for history and project blog.

Click here to watch the project film.

‘Deeds not Words’: Endell Street Military Hospital commemorates the hospital founded by two suffragist doctors and whose all-female medical staff treated over 26,000 patients and performed more than 7,000 operations between 1915-1919.

Digital Drama, a UK-based media production company, has been awarded a £73,900 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for the project in partnership with the Women’s Library at the London School of Economics. An immersive dramatic event, creative workshops and exhibition and website will be created in July 2017.

CALL TO ACTION…GET INVOLVED

We are looking for volunteers to get involved in performance, stage management and historical research this summer. To find out more about the project and express your interest in taking part, please contact info@digitaldrama.org or call Alison on 07525 205148.

image IWM

By Kate Valentine|2017-06-03T11:51:06+00:0027 January 2017|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Galsworthy and Human Battles on the Home Front Exhibition

“Affecting and absorbing, Human Battles is a touching tribute to a local experience of war.”

A great evening for the opening of audio / visual exhibition Galsworthy and Human Battles on the Home Front, produced by Digital Drama for The Rose Theatre. Ken Smith, Mayor of Kingston, spoke of Galsworthy’s humanitarian campaigns and the South West London Military Wives Choir sang for guests including the exhibition’s local contributors.

Four stars for the exhibition from Alexandra Sims of The Upcoming:

“The exhibition not only unearths the much-forgotten philanthropy of one of London’s greatest author’s but also, through local stories, connects us to an event that a century on can feel extremely distant. The combination of personal tales and Galsworthy’s biography all framed within the context of the war creates an exhibition large in scope, yet with intimate and meaningful layers that speak to us today. Small touches such as the diary excerpts and letters, written by local soldiers and the embroidered postcards written with messages of love from the front, give an intimate touch making their sacrifices seem all the more devastating.

The audio element is particularly moving, as hearing the voices of soldier’s children and grandchilden as well as their undergoing rehabilitation at Headley Court make the exhibit all the more poignant. Affecting and absorbing, Human Battles is a touching tribute to a local experience of war.”

Click here for full review and here for the Galsworthy project page.

Galsworthy related images courtesy of Cadbury Research Library and Special Collections, University of Birmingham.

By Kate Valentine|2015-01-27T16:21:25+00:005 September 2014|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Unearthing Family Treasures from the First World War

Call to Action!

Help the Rose Theatre unearth Kingston’s treasures from the First World War

Do you have family memorabilia to share from the First World War? The Rose Theatre are looking to borrow treasures, photographs and documents for a major exhibition to mark this important centenary.

We are interested in life on the home front as well as on the battle field and are keen to represent all the communities of Kingston.

Images, artefacts and recorded memories will conjure up Kingston during the First World War in this interactive audio trail at the Rose Theatre in September 2014.

Writings and diaries from local Nobel playwright and campaigner John Galsworthy will be supported with voices and memories of the community; from the home front and battlefield. Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and created by Digital Drama, this major exhibition will evoke the sounds and sacrifice of a generation steeped in war.

If you have family memorabilia from the First World War and can help us in our call to action, please click on the ‘Get Involved’ button below to give us your details or email alisonramsey@digitaldrama.org or call on 077525205148

Deadline for contributions: March 28th 2014

[button color=”orange” size=”large” link=”https://docs.google.com/a/digitaldrama.org/forms/d/1dlDApYkj1oaWKnkrOX__qo84Y2FQ6eMubTNEbkdyMO8/viewform” target=”_blank”]GET INVOLVED[/button]

By Kate Valentine|2015-01-15T17:27:49+00:006 January 2014|Uncategorized|0 Comments