A SHORT film starring Keswick and Cumbrian community members will be screened at the Alhambra cinema on Saturday.

The film is the outcome of a long-running art project called Desire Lines focused on Crow Park in Keswick. It explores the relationship between communities in the town and the local landscape.

The project has been hosted by the National Trust and was led by artist Rebecca Beinart, who has worked with over 100 people in the town since January 2020.

The people involved range from the pupil’s arts council at St Herbert’s Primary School to members of Sustainable Keswick and Keswick Natural History Society.

Directing the film enabled Rebecca to collaborate with a number of Cumbria-based artists and creatives, including film maker and sound artist RL Wilson, film maker Laurence Campbell, writer and artist Wallace Heim and costume designer Maggi Toner-Edgar.

Creative writing by community participants helped to form the script, and the costumes were made from unwanted outdoor material donated by local companies with help from Viri Sica and the repair shop at Alpkit Keswick.

Rebecca said: “The Desire Lines film is rooted in Crow Park and explores how a familiar viewpoint can reveal different ways of experiencing place.

"It brings together different strands from workshops and research throughout the project, including visual design, costumes, movement and creative writing.

"It’s been amazing to work with so many local people over the past 18 months – through the challenges of the pandemic – and to be able to share a collaborative creation.”

Jessie Binns, from the National Trust, said: “It’s been such a humbling process seeing the outpouring of creativity from the people who live on the doorstep of Crow Park, which we’ve cared for on behalf of the nation since 1925.

"Listening to the voices of the people who live and work in the places we look after is so vital.

"This project has also highlighted the importance of listening to the non-human voices too: in the film the weather, water, plants, birds, animals and insects – even the geology – get a starring role.”

The short film will be made available to watch online via the website nationaltrust.org.uk/desire-lines a week after the premiere.

The project is part of Trust New Art, the National Trust’s programme of contemporary arts, supported with public funding by Arts Council England and produced with support from Arts&Heritage.