It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood

This was in my mind when deciding to bring Daguerréotypes into our current season of documentaries, The Stories We Tell. Inspired by the recent staging of Little Women at our sister venue, the Leeds Grand Theatre, Louisa May Alcott’s seminal play is a pure joy to me. I obviously love the fiercely intelligent and passionate Jo, but with each reimagination of the story I realise a little more how beautiful each of the nuance of the other sisters, or Marmee is. Jo may shine brightly, but Alcott’s story is a celebration of the differences in the family alongside the love.

When scouring the film world for filmmakers who hold that love for characters so dearly, it’s an easy hop skip and a jump to Agnes Varda.

Our special screening on Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of Daguerréotypes, Varda’s 1975 ode to the inhabitants of the Paris’s rue Daguerre.

The film came about in part from a position of complete practicality. She was at home following the birth of her son (then two) and had lived and worked on the rue Daguerre since the 1950s. The bakers, tailors, butchers, perfumers, music-store clerks and driving instructors all sparked her curiosity. But logistically, the entire film was also able to be shot within a 90-metre radius of her residence, the maximum length of the electric cables powering her kit. I love watching the film and thinking of this, the process and the creativity but also the stage in her life she was at when making the film. What will that of meant for how she engaged with and explored her environment? How does our appreciation of our neighbourhood change when circumstance gives us to time to meet people, to talk, to listen to their stories?

It’s interesting for us to be sharing Daguerréotypes this week in particular, when our neighbourhood is hot off the heals of the Changeover period. A mass arrival and exodus all happening over one long weekend. It’s always so strange existing in Hyde Park at this time of year, where so much change happens in such an intense period and so many of the people who are our neighbours and make up our community shuffle around to a different house or move on completely.

It's a period that can come with great stress and tension for so many, whether new arrivals or those moving on to a new stage in their life, or long-term residents seeing their community stretch and stumble a little with such a monumental change. I feel so grateful for the incredible work we see that goes on right on our doorstep to try ease the way, whether that’s the incredible teams working across the universities, led by the Sustainability team at the University of Leeds who have been wonderful friends to us for so many years, or our local councillors, who get stuck in with pick-ups and leafleting, clearing streets and listening to people’s woes. There are also the amazing venues in our community like the Cardigan Centre and Rainbow Junktion who work to find ways to participate, through collections, community shops, and kind and encouraging words along the way.

And, finally the individuals, the neighbours who are the glue that binds all of this. That’s the long-term friends we know are out there trying to make our community better, or the new residents finding their feet and coming to Hyde Park in search of a home, however long that may be for.