Chilham on Screen: A One-Day Festival

Lavinia Brydon (School of Arts) is launching an exciting new project to explore questions of location filming in the region. Working with Lisa Stead (Exeter), the project kicks off with the Chilham On Screen festival – a day of fun activities that seeks to understand the impact of location filming in the village.

The free open event will focus on sharing and exploring the memories and experiences of community members, young and old, who have seen film crews transform their homes and streets for some 70 years. Since Powell and Pressburger filmed their iconic A Canterbury Tale within the village, Chilham has hosted a wide variety of filmmakers and television crews, providing a backdrop for Jane Austin adaptations and playing host to TV shows such as Top Gear, Poirot and Miss Marple.

The day-long event, hosted at the village hall, will feature exhibition stands, film clips, a DIY location map, a children’s table and more, and tea and cake will be served throughout. The organisers are keen to record people’s memories and anecdotes from having a home or business turned into a film set, and encourage locals to bring along any photographs, autographs, newspaper clippings and other memorabilia that they may have gathered over the years. The project hopes to create a new resource for the community, charting people’s experience of the village through its screen histories.

If you have memories to share, or a passion for film – come along and join in!

Poster – CoS