Project: Being Human 2020 film

This week we released a film bringing together some highlights and reflections on the 2020 Being Human festival. The festival took place in November, and coincided with a lockdown in England and strict restrictions across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. As much as anything else, therefore, this film became a record of a festival held mostly online – but throughout which people still went above and beyond to find innovative, creative ways of linking their research to the everyday lives of people across the UK.

I was delighted to be interviewed as part of this film and to offer some thoughts on the ways that people responded to the challenges of 2020. The film is a poignant one for me, as it captures the last Being Human festival that I will work on as Manager & Curator, before moving to a new role at Goldsmiths University in late May 2021.

Working on the festival over the past 8 years has been the most incredible experience and an incredible privilege, and one that I intend to write about in more detail at a later date. For now though, it is fantastic to have this film to look back on and to document a strange year for festival organising, but one which promoted an unprecedented wave of creativity from all involved.