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Green Space Dark Skies Dorset film

Dorset AONB’s Maiden Castle takes centre stage in powerful new short film celebrating the region’s beauty - safeguarding it for future generations

Published:

Download the "Green Space Dark Skies Dorset film" press release (PDF)

Local people can support Green Space Dark Skies by submitting their own stories of landscape memories.

A powerful new film is celebrating an extraordinary gathering that took place in Maiden Castle, Dorset AONB last month. Artists and community groups from around the region came together on 11 June, as part of the UK- wide project Green Space Dark Skies, led by Walk the Plank as part of the UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK festival.

Together, they explored Dorset AONB’s extraordinary landscape by making a magical journey at dusk. Across a stunning tableau of poetry & performance, music & dance and low impact light art they created something truly remarkable. This gathering was captured and is now released as a film available to watch here.

Green Space Dark Skies has been designed to draw attention to how we safeguard the future of our
countryside and our rights to access it. The Dorset event was one of a series being made at rural locations across the UK. And there are still opportunities for people to get involved by submitting their own experiences and memories of being in the landscape to the Green Space Dark Skies’ citizen science survey.

The short film’s energy shows how Green Space Dark Skies brought diverse groups together – the low impact Geolights showing the joy & delight on participants’ faces.

The words of poet and writer Zakiya McKenzie were central to the live gathering and narrate the film. In her words: “This place sprawls across time. Telling the tale of ground packed and bound by those who placed evergreen stories within reach. Stories in safe keep. Across ramparts and mound with beauty beneath. We dig for old fragments and assemble them until night…"

Participants in the film were part of creating the artwork in the landscape using movement and specially designed Geolights by graduate engineers at Siemens. The creative team for the gathering was led by local producers Activate Performing Arts. Dorchester rapper Isaiah Dreads and choreographer Subathra Subramaniam joined Zakiya McKenzie in devising a unique atmosphere.