A book of transcripts of all the films made by Jordan Baseman during the Alchemy fellowship is available from the Museum shop.

January 2008

Three of the four new films made by Jordan Baseman during his Alchemy fellowship will be screened at The Manchester Museum from 27th February to 1st March. The programme will be made of:

Inside Man, 10 minutes
Baseman's interviews with convicted fraudster Geoff Trendall form a monolgue in Trendalls own words questioning notions of right and wrong, with an original score by Baseman and footage sourced from the North West Film Archive.

An Event in the Village, 9 minutes
After looking through over 200 films at the North West Film Archive, Baseman contacted filmmaker Frank Rigby who had recorded the Bickershaw Festival in 1972. Held in the small village of Bickerhsaw, just outside Wigan, the festival had hosted the likes of the Grateful Dead and Captain Beefheart. 35 years on Baseman combines Rigby's reminesces with his original footage.

The Documentary Imperative, 21 minutes
Baseman combines reflections on the nature of documentary film, the ethics of working with people as participants/subjects from Dr Rupert Cox, Director of The University of Manchester's Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology, with foootage shot by Baseman several years earlier.

There will be a special event with Jordan Baseman and Rupert Cox discussing The Documentary Imperative on 3rd March. Go to our What's On Page for more information.

November 2007
Joy On Toast Screened in Herbarium

Jordan Baseman's first completed film, Joy on Toast, was screened over four days in a tiny room at the back of the Museum's botanical storerooms. The eight participants met at the front desk and would be lead to the working areas of the botanical storerooms, an area not generally open to the public. Each group walked through the herbarium, in between the rows of boxes containing about 4million botanical specimens, through to a spiral staircase and finally to an unused storeroom where the film was screened.

You can read a transcript of Joy On Toast in the current edition of The Alchemical Times, click here to download it as a PDF.

We will also be repeating the screening of Joy On Toast in the Herbarium on the Alchemy Night at Manchester Museum on 14th March, email bryony.bond@manchester.ac.uk to get more information about this special event.

Click on the notebook to see inside

May 2007

Since January, I have looked at over 200 films in the North West Film Archive. I have selected 53 films to work with and to seek copyright clearance for their use. To date I have secured copyright clearance of nearly 45 of these films. I will use these films as the visual foundations for various original interviews that have recently been recorded and ones that I have yet to conduct.

Some of the films will be used to accompany original music (written especially for these films by me) without spoken narrative.

I have also spent a great deal of time researching the flora of Iraq. At one point I thought that I might work with various herbarium specimens to look at the landscape of this country. Although I have now put these ideas to one side they led me to meet and interview Sheila Collenette who has written two comprehensive books on the flora of Saudi Arabia.

Interviews conducted so far:

Shelia Collenette (x 2)
Botanical Explorer
Made major contributions to Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh and British Museum. Especially flora of Saudi Arabia and Borneo. Sheila spent 26 years collecting and studying the flora of Saudi Arabia and 14 years collecting and studying the flora of Borneo. These interviews will form the basis of a soundtrack for films sourced from the North West Film Archive.

Rupert Cox (x 1)
Senior Lecturer
Visual Anthropology Department
University of Manchester
This interview will form the basis of a soundtrack for films sourced from the North West Film Archive. The interview with Rupert concentrates on the documentary imperative in anthropological terms and the politics of making films, working with people as participant/observers and recording and editing.

Geoff Trendall (x 4)
Gangster/Fraudster
The interviews with Geoff question notions of right and wrong and the conventions of social structures. These interviews will form the basis of a soundtrack for films sourced from the North West Film Archive.

Interviews yet to be conducted:

Mike Goodger
Manchester-based filmmaker
These interviews with Mike will take place in early June and they will form the basis of a soundtrack for films sourced from the North West Film Archive.

Frank Rigby
Amateur filmmaker.
I hope to interview Mr. Rigby about some film that he shot in 1973 - but this may not be possible as I am having difficulty making contact with Mr. Rigby. I am pursuing this because the films that he has shot (of a rock music festival in Port Merion Wales) are especially interesting.

Jordan Baseman

Selection of images taken by Jordan in Anthropology stores and Herbarium

December 2006

Meetings are being set up with the departments at the Museum and University in which Jordan is interested. After our initial discussion Jordan has also become interested in looking at the University's Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology, not only looking at collections of archive material, but also as a means of informing his own practice, which in many respects mirrors that of a visual anthropologist.
Bryony Bond

August 2006

Excerpts from Jordan's initial statement of interest:

"I would be particularly interested in working with the botany collection and herbarium... I would be eager to speak to the keepers of the collection to discover and research the stories behind some of the people involved in the cultivation and/or collections of this material. Specifically I'm interested in the anecdotal information and the personal stories behind the collection - the Botanist's stories and histories.

Our use of plants, our knowledge of plants and our understanding of the flora that surrounds us, is of great interest to me. I am interested in the meaning of the things around us - and in this case, the meaning of plants: plants as ideas. This would hopefully lead me to work with the Criminology, History, Philosophy, Physics and Astronomy departments within the University."