The Hinterlands final day

Its been a very busy and engaging week and has passed very quickly. We've been extremely lucky with the weather and it's been so nice to sit out and eat dinner outside every evening with everyone. It makes all the hard work in the run up to the week seem worthwhile. 

We've been lucky enough to have Pascal Wyse, multimedia producer for the Guardian down from London to talk about his work with soundscapes and images and last night we had one of last year's participants Alice Carfrae back to talk about her work Tin Girls. There was silence in the room while she talked about the women she met who were survivors of trafficking. She showed the multimedia work she produced after last year's workshop which included performance, theatre, images and sound. The group at The Hinterlands raised several hundred pounds to help her put on an exhibition of her work and duckrabbit matched the money raised, making a total of around £900.00.  

We also heard from John MacPherson speaking about the land, the sea, woodland and belief. He showed some beautiful work and gave everyone even more to think about. It's always a treat to have speakers along for the week and although it's hard for everyone to take a break and drag themselves away from their laptops and audio editing, it provides a breathing space for inspiration and re-energises the group.

Last year was the first workshop and it's been tempting to compare the two years, but there really is no comparison. As with all groups when you bring people together and build a community over a week  all sorts of energy flies around and I've found this year every bit as enjoyable as last. It will seem very strange when everyone packs their things and leaves the site. Tonight though is the final night where the local community gather together to watch the films the teams produce. There is a real sense of fulfilment from the participants, the crowd and the people who've taken time to share their stories and it will be a very special event.

The Hinterlands workshop gets underway

We've got a lovely group of people here on this year's Hinterlands photofilm workshop and the weather has been gorgeous so far.  The workshop has kicked off in a very relaxed fashion with some beer and cider tasting and a lazing getting to know each other session yesterday. Today participants are hard at it in the training session with Benjamin and off to their stories tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will hold and it will continue to be a glorious week here in Devon.

It's all go

I'm off to my sisters wedding in Cornwall and not taking the pictures, duckrabbit workshop happening in a week and The Hinterlands featured in Hungry Eye Magazine today. All we need now is a bit of sun again.

The new Hinterlands website is now up and running.

After a lot of hard work, countless conversations and some very late nights, the new Hinterlands website is now up and running. Take a look if you're interested in finding out more about duckrabbit's photofilm workshop, or a photographic immersion workshop with Brenda Ann Kenneally. All the dates and prices are on the site, but feel free to get in touch with any questions via email at rebecca@thehinterlands if you think theres something we've missed.

Decompressing after our wonderful workshop

Back at home now and still coming down from the workshop. It started with an idea and grew to a full blown amazing experience. It surpassed all my expectations and all the hard work in the lead up was well worth the effort. It's been a roller coaster of emotions I felt exhausted, energised, overwhelmed but over all so, so happy we were able to create a space for the participants to learn new skills and go away feeling they had value for money.

Myself and Mike are passionate about good food, sharing skills, the great outdoors and good company - The Hinterlands workshop bought all this together and so much more. I feel proud to have been part of the team and glad duckrabbit agreed to come along and collaborate with us. The training was outstanding and Benjamin and David bought an amazing amount of energy to the five days.

There were also some brilliant speakers who I feel are well worth a look and want to say thank you to as they provided a wonderful interlude to the hard work and were truly inspirational. They include; Tessa Bunny, Jonathan Worth, Nick Hand, Georgina Cranston and of course David White and Benjamin Chesterton from duckrabbit.

Now away from the Devon hills and back in my terraced house with brown roofs to wake to and no birdsong, I am feeling more than a little separation anxiety from the people who I've laughed with, eaten delicious food with, learned with and worried over!

Those who are close to me know these last few months have been hard since the death of my father, but I feel he would be proud. So thank you Dad for everything you've done for me in my life. x