WIREDGOV

A stop-motion animation about the women’s suffrage movement created by a group of 14 teenagers using records held at The National Archives had its debut showing last night.

The premiere of “Suffrage Tales” was the first time the participants and their families had seen the result of their film-making work. The teenagers – aged between 16 and 19 – spent a week in The National Archives in August 2017 working with original records to interpret them, creating a 14-minute animation.

The film headlined the suffrage arts evening organised by the Education department. Sharing the billing was a performance of “A Presentment of Ordinary Women: a Suffragette play for the twenty-first century” written by The National Archives’ student writer in residence. The play was also inspired directly by research into suffrage documents at The National Archives.

A document display of original suffrage records followed the screening, allowing the audience to see the inspiration behind both productions for themselves.

The evening demonstrated the creativity and determination of the young people, who were able to translate the challenging content of the files into two pieces of art.

Rachel Hillman, Education Operations Manager, Education and Outreach at The National Archives, said: “Suffrage Tales conveys these young people’s response to archival material – it is their interpretation of the fight for women’s suffrage as detailed in the records.

“This film is testament to the engaging power of original documents, and to the creativity and enthusiasm of a committed group of young people”.

Teenage filmmaker, Yasmin, commented: “Suffrage Tales has inspired me to believe these tales of suffrage should be transferred to our generation, giving us the inspiration to struggle against something that limits us or our liberty.”

The project was kindly funded by the Friends of The National Archives.

Watch the film trailer.