100 PEOPLE has been a community portrait and archive project based within the residential area of Shieldfield, Newcastle upon Tyne.

The aim has been to co-create an interwoven feature film which reflects the rich and complex relationships of co-existence and solidarity within the neighbourhood.

Combining an experimental approach to film-making, with multiple opportunities for public forum, co-creation, and collective joy, the project has produced an exhibition, a folk song, an experimental and democratic protocol for recording/archiving, a feature film, and a digital archive that is both collectively owned and managed by the community co-operative Dwellbeing Shieldfield.


 
 

From the outset, we wanted our process to reflect the collective relationships we hoped to represent, so we began with a series of accessible workshops to co-develop a process for recording.

The result was an experimental and democratic protocol for recorded conversations between community members, rather than the customary interviewer/interviewee format.

Between May 2022 and March 2023 we recorded multiple conversations between workers, residents, friends, neighbours, and sometimes strangers, diverse in age, ethnicity, cultural, social, and economic background, with the aim to create a complicated and multi-voiced portrait of co-existence.

If you identified as someone who lives, works, or plays in the neighbourhood then you (the host) were encouraged to invite someone of your choosing (the guest) to a recorded conversation. This could have been someone you knew well, someone you have met only in passing, or perhaps someone you will be meeting for the very first time.

Ahead of each recording we ensured any access barriers were identified, such as language, mobility, child-care, or anything else that might limit someone’s ability to join in, and each recording took place at a venue and time of day of the host’s choosing, and lasted between one to two hours. 

The recorded footage was then compiled and edited to form the feature film 100 People: A Portrait of Co-Existence which premiered at The Star and Shadow Cinema in Newcastle upon Tyne on Wednesday 1st November 2023.

Once the feature film was completed all of the raw/unedited recordings were handed over into the collective custody Dwellbeing Shieldfield. The idea was to develop a digital archive that would be in common ownership, meaning the recordings could continue to serve the community long into the future.

Find out more about the ongoing development of the community archive here: dwellbeingshieldfield.org.uk/programmes/community-archive

 
 
 

The stories we tend to hear are fond of heroes. Our novels, our cinema, our history and our news are all dominated by them. But, what might the social consequences be for this individualised approach to storytelling, who might be hidden in the hero’s large shadow, and what kind of stories get left behind?

The 100 People project emerges in direct response to a Rebecca Solnit article* which observes that the we are not very good at telling stories about a hundred people doing things, and that positive social change may result from connecting more deeply to people around us rather than rising above them.

 

- Rebecca Solnit, When the hero becomes the problem (2019)

Like many neighbourhoods across the UK, Shieldfield is home to many people whose lives differ considerably. In recent years many different people have been working together to both imagine and create initiatives that benefit each other in direct ways. These include community gardening projects, a volunteer-run community café, and a youth programme shaped by the young people who live here.

To tell a story about the many people actively engaged in this activity, diverse in age, ethnicity, gender, religion, social and economic status, sexual orientation, viewpoint, background, language and lived experience, would of course be complicated.

For all of the activity here in Shieldfield there is no singular spokesperson, no figurehead, no hero, and as such it’s a messy story that remains difficult to tell.

But what if we tried?