This short film trilogy uses colour 16mm film to explore specific human and non-human environments and ecologies across Teesside. The series draws attention to how analogue filmmaking technology communicates space and movement through cycles of light, and how this represents our relationships with nature, labour and culture. For each film, workshops were held with local groups including scientists, school children and football fans, with fragments of their dreams, words and voices on subtitles and soundtracks.
Digital transfer from 16mm colour film, 13mins 12secs
Test tubes and bottles, cabinets and pressure gauges, microscopes, freezers and 3D printers, pipettes and pipes, and a colony of dancing seals. Developed from workshops with lab researchers and shot on location at the advanced biosciences facility National Horizons Centre and Teesmouth National Nature Reserve, the film explores the labour exchange from human hand to machine processes to the seals of Seal Sands.
Supporting the work of Teesmouth Seal Rescue and Coastal Conservation Centre.
Forms of Circulation #1
Paul Stewart and Sarah Perks
Digital transfer from 16mm film, 13mins 12secs, 2023
Digital transfer from 16mm colour film, 12mins 8 secs
The green space in town where ladybirds, egrets and ducks live and a burnt-out car becomes a sculpture to dance around, set to a digital music score that combines the rustle of the trees, the bubbling of the beck and the hum of the A19 dual carriageway. Musing on the uses of Tilery Rec, local school children, birds, animals and insects, and the park itself, all come together to play, dream and offer new ideas and visions for the future.
Made with the participation of Year 5 and 6 Geography class at Tilery Primary School, commissioned by the Tees Estuary Nature Recovery Partnership.
Forms of Circulation #2 Teaser
Paul Stewart and Sarah Perks
Digital transfer from 16mm colour film, 12mins 8secs, 2025
Digital transfer from 16mm colour film, time TBC
The third film will premiere as part of this exhibition in early 2026. Capturing the stadium’s fan communities and the supporting roles of wildlife around the Riverside.
Part of Green Corridors North East (AHRC Mission Award) led by Durham University, Newcastle University, Teesside University and the National Trust.