BEFORE THE FLAME GOES OUT

‘If you could only speak for as long as this match burns and every word would be remembered and acted on - what would you say?’

Content warning: contains references to racist violence 

BEFORE THE FLAME GOES OUT

BEFORE THE FLAME GOES OUT Audio Described Version

BEFORE THE FLAME GOES OUT is a short poetic film meditating on the social impact of Covid-19. It features a newly commissioned poem by Raymond Antrobus, performed in BSL by Nadia Nadarajah and in spoken English by Rebecca Scroggs.

The film is created by artists and participants from across the UK. It is made in an access aesthetic, combining testimony, a BSL (Visual Vernacular) poem, creative captions and projection, with a thrillingly original score.

Covid-19 has both revealed and exacerbated existing structural inequalities in the UK, as well as impacting our everyday lives. BEFORE THE FLAME GOES OUT started with Hydrocracker inviting a group of people from across the UK to share their experiences and to film a simple video of themselves responding to the question: ‘If you could only speak for as long as this match burns, and every word would be remembered and acted on, what would you say?’

We then asked poet and writer Raymond Antrobus and an extraordinary group of artists to collage these acts of remembrance and defiance into a short film. Inspired by the participant’s videos, Raymond’s poem, List of Demands, or Things to Light on a Fire, sits at the core of the film.

BEFORE THE FLAME GOES OUT is a collective act of remembering and resistance.

Given the chance, what would you say?