Birdsong – Stories from Pripyat
Birdsong – Stories from Pripyat (2016)
Directed by Clara Casian
Original Score by Robin Richards
38 minutes
Produced by Katie Popperwell
Camera by Ricardo Vilela from Sagitta Media and Clara Casian
Edited by Clara Casian
Based on testimonies by Valentina Kuprienko, Mykola Dubas, Olha Savotivna, Mrs Volodymyr Kachan, Alexander Sirota, John Roberts
Poetry by Maria Casian
Archival footage sourced from Dovzhenko Centre Kiev, Volodymyr Kuznietsov and North West Film Archive UK
Supported by Arts Council England, HOME Artist Film, University of Salford, Old Granada Studios and Low Four
Birdsong – Stories from Pripyat is a film directed by Clara Casian with original score by Robin Richards. The film is underpinned by nuclear research and incorporates found and previously unseen archival footage with original material filmed on location in Ukraine, while Robin Richards’ original score for piano, strings and synthesisers is based on first hand testimonies of Pripyat residents, liquidators of the Chernobyl plant and evacuees to his hometown of Stockport and nearby Glossop from Ukraine and Belarus. The project combines the immediacy and energy of live music with the magic of cinema, revisiting a dramatic and devastating historical event using personal and scientific narratives to draw out the tensions and truths at play in our collective cultural memory of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Find out more at www.pripyatbirdsong.co.uk
Press:
http://www.silentradio.co.uk/10/04/review-birdsong-stories-from-pripyat-ft-score-by-robin-richards/
http://clashmusic.com/news/dutch-uncles-robin-richards-working-on-chernobyl-project
https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/reference-points/dutch-uncles-visit-chernobyl
Performance Schedule:
Friday 30th September 2016, HOME, 2 Anthony Wilson Place
Friday 7th October 2016, Salford University, Peel Hall
Friday 6th October 2016, Stockport Plaza
Sunday, 9th April 2017, Flatpack Festival, Lyttelton Theatre
Birdsong – Stories from Pripyat: ‘Liquidators’ Chapter
Film Stills:
