THE FRONT

The US Premiere of a film by Chloë Brown

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A Soft Rebellion in Paradise, a new short film by artist Chloë Brown centres on women’s voices, and was created with an all-female crew, production team and cast. The film was commissioned in the UK by the Sheffield-based visual arts programme, Making Ways and received its international premiere in the city on Saturday 8th June 2019 as part of the international film festival DocFest.

A Soft Rebellion in Paradise focuses in particular on the voices of women that are too often silenced and lost in the retelling of histories around the world. Initially conceived in response to Sheffield’s history as a city known for its political activism and in particular the birth place of organised action for female suffrage in Britain in 1851, the film enters into a global dialogue by questioning the systematic contemporary and historical silencing of women. Over 200 women participated in creating the film, performing a series of ‘Soft Rebellions’, a term used by Brown to describe her on-going exploration of artistic actions. Previous ‘Soft Rebellions’ have included working with participants who dance, eat, meet and applaud in places where it is unusual, or even forbidden, to do so. The filming took place in Paradise Square in the city; the idealistic concept of ‘paradise’ being key to the hopeful and yet melancholic desire for change that is inherent in the film.

At the heart of the film is the poem, Soft Rebellions in Paradise Squared by poet, Geraldine Monk, who worked with Brown on the project. This part chant, part song and part incantation sits alongside a goose bump-inducing silence and an ear-splitting yell by the crowd. It is a call to action by ‘The Unquiets’ (the women in the crowd) who urgently chant as Monk performs from a balcony above the square. Alongside this, a group of four women perform a discordant ‘song’ that references both historian Mary Beard’s lecture, ‘Women & Power’ and author Henry James’ misogynistic criticism of the female voice, which he described as ‘a mumble or jumble, a tongue-less slobber’.

To accompany these ‘Soft Rebellions’, Belfast-based musician and performer, DIE HEXEN, has composed an evocative soundscape that builds to an intense and powerful crescendo.

Chloë Brown says: ‘At a time when the world is still reeling from the #MeToo campaign and we mark the one hundred year anniversary since women first achieved the right to vote in the UK, I wanted to make a film that could contribute to this debate by focussing solely on women’s voices to create a defiant piece of art that is demanding to be seen AND heard.’  

The film is approximately 10 minutes long and a certificate U.

There will be a Q&A with Chloë Brown following the screening.

Chloë Brown (UK b.1964) has an MA in Sculpture from Chelsea College of Art, London (1994), and a BA in Fine Art from the University of Reading (1987). She has exhibited internationally over the last 30 years including three international biennials (Istanbul Biennial, Mardin Biennial and the British Ceramics Biennial) with work recently included in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). She is also a Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University, UK.

Brown creates drawings, sculptures and films that are socio-political at heart and often participatory, working with the inhabitants and locations in post-industrial cities: in Stoke-on-Trent (The Potteries) U.K, then in Detroit (The Motor City) USA, and now in Sheffield (The Steel City) UK, in order to question the position a city finds itself in once its’ industry and the associated employment has dwindled. She poses the question: ‘what happens when the economic engines of a city slow down but the people don’t?’ with a sense of optimism and empowerment.