Bless The People Who Live in This House
Synopsis
Bless The People Who Live in This House is a short film shaped with people connected to ARC and RAIS across Blackburn and Lancaster, reframing the hostile national conversation around migration into something local, human and lived. Through food, memory, faith, friendship, performance and everyday acts of care, the film looks at what it means to build sanctuary in a country often taught to fear it. It is a portrait of community as resistance, and of the quiet, generous work that makes people feel at home when the world has tried to make them temporary. |
Artist Statement
This project began from my desire make something which celebrated the multi-culturalism that exists all around my life in the UK. Not the rubbing out of nuances and differences to make ‘culture’ something easily packageable, but what comes from listening and learning from people whose experiences are not so similar to my own. What new culture can be born from this? We found the answer to this in the communities at ARC and RAIS: communities formed around people from across the world, all of whom with their own identity, each contributing something unique. The communities of ARC and RAIS are made up of people who've made not only physical, but also emotional and cultural crossings. With them, they brought stories, food, memories built by their homes and transformed through their crossings. From them we can learn about countries, cultures, how politics make people move, how our country treats them. We learn to be empathetic in the face of a country and world that can feel divided, hostile and painful for many. In response, this film is offered as a place for listening rather than judgement |
James Samuel
| I am a Lancaster/Manchester based filmmaker and emerging director whose work moves across cinematography, editing, installation, curation and exhibition. While studying at Lancaster University, I have worked across several short films including Wanderer as DoP and editor, Left Alone and The Twitcher as gaffer, and Open Up as gaffer, editor and associate producer. I've created installation work for fine art modules such as memo-poetics, bringing film and art together for an installation at the Dukes Lancaster. In 2024 I joined the HOME Young Film Collective, where I was DoP on For God’s Sake. I have since supported longtime collaborator Jack Clarke on the exhibition Nothing About Us Without Us. Bless The People Who Live in This House marks my directorial debut. |