This is England

Working in and with the people of the Broxtowe estate, Simon Poulter has been commissioned to make a documentary film which looks at the lives and issues surrounding what some consider to be one of Englands most deprived areas. 

"This is a film about local culture. The intention for this film is to consider how people who have no formal education, and are not on any university path, can interact with academics, politicians and those perceived to be outside their community. The idea is to orchestrate discussion within the live action, which is important in itself, and after to edit this material to create a movie which allows the viewer to form his or her own opinion about the barriers to learning in places such as Broxtowe.

In order to make the film, we used a Subaru WRX as a mobile studio in the Broxtowe area. The car is a sort of Trojan horse, which draws attention to itself but then allows for the unexpected.

This work is a situational documentary, a mode of documentary making where situations are set up but the outcome is indeterminate. Building on the ideas of reflexive cinema, it is recognised that a camera and film crews presence change things, but that a portrait of the subject, in this case Broxtowe, can still come through.” Simon Poulter

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