Carnival Arts

I went on some fabulous free courses in April run by NORCA celebrating the Carnival Archive Project. I got to learn about filming oral history, developing oral histories as stage plays (very useful for my plans for OUT140!) and even got to make a rainbow bus using felting!

Creative Writing Class at the Norwich Arts Centre

I really enjoyed the "Getting Started in Creative Writing" course at the Norwich Arts Centre led by Claire Sharland. It was definitely an area of my work I would like to develop. I do enjoy writing the scripts for my voice-overs but most of my film-work is factual-based so it was fun to use a bit more imagination. I was pleased to see Claire's exercises sparking all sorts of ideas for characters and plots and settings. Maybe I could do drama afterall......

Evolving

"Evolving: Young Trans People Tell their Stories", a set of films I made with some amazing young filmmakers from MAP is showing at Cinema City on Monday evening, supporting the documentary "What Katy Did". It is guaranteed to make you cry/laugh/feel proud. It's a rare opportunity to see the films on the big screen - the young people are very precious about their production and it hasn't been released on DVD. Please support if you can. Some of the ticket money will go to the Evolve group.

Norwich Rising

We had an AMAZING time at Norwich Rising and got some wonderful press.

I made a trailer for the event on my iPhone that has had over 5,000 views! It was mentioned in the Guardian: “The idea of dancing to stop violence has understandably attracted naysayers, even among committed supporters, but two videos, among hundreds, sum up how Ensler’s idea inspires campaigners. The first is the one that launched the new anthem written and produced by Grammy-award-winning Tena Clark, Break the Chain, with a video choreographed by Debbie Allen, who went on to make her own accompanying “how to” dance video. The second is one produced by campaigners in Norwich. Without the involvement of the sort of Hollywood A-listers – Robert Redford, Jane Fonda – usually associated with Ensler, it’s still hugely effective. Local organisers were keen to show that the campaign is supported by men and boys as well as women.” Our trailer is embedded into the online article.

Hundreds of people came to the Forum and danced. We took this big team pic at the end when loads had already gone.

I had some sweet feedback from Anne from NIA Norfolk who led the dancing: "Brilliant job Shell - you should feel very proud of yourself- an amazing feat of collaboration and seemingly effortless organisation!" It was great doing such a wonderful event and it only lasting an hour - much easier than organising Norwich Pride! Here's a great pic of me and Amrita from Norwich Mind taken by Ann Nicholls from Look, See, Click!

Portrait of an Artist as a Gay Man

I've been in Brighton Filming the launch of Vince's B.Right.On Festival. There were two events today - a launch of the festival at City Hall at 3pm and a launch of Vince's exhibition BANNED in the library at 7pm. The library event was stunning. There was so many people and Vince's idea to paint 78 people with the names of countries where homosexuality is banned was genius. Over 100 people joined in so there was some doubles but very effective and very moving. Here's a pic Sam Collins took of me filming some of Vince's art. 

One Billion Rising

Have you heard about One Billion Rising? It's a global day of action on 14th February 2013 to inspire 1 billion women and girls, and the people who love them, to dance to demand an end to violence against all women and girls. Why 1 billion? Because the UN estimates that one in three women on earth (1 billion women) will be raped or sexually assaulted in her lifetime.

Here in Norwich, we're aiming to inspire 20,000 women and girls (approximately one in three women who live in the city) and men and boys to dance on 14th February. It's less than 30 days away so the pressure is on but we are getting people on board every day and we're marketing this virally through social media and word-of-mouth e.g. women are going to their dance tutors and spreading the word through their dance classes. The Chief Fire Officer emailed his staff to ask them to dance with him which was pretty cool. We are in touch with women dancing all over the world via Twitter and Facebook which is really exciting. There is a campaign dance that people are learning across the globe. You can watch it here: www.norwichrising.wordpress.com/dance. We're encouraging people to get together with friends and colleagues and learn the dance and we have set up some weekly rehearsals (6pm at the Garage on Thursdays; 10am at the Forum on Sundays) where people can meet up with others.

We're going to have a mass dance outside the Forum in Norwich at 1pm on 14th February and we are encouraging people to dance with us there or wherever they are and in whatever way they can. I'm going to be making a film about Norwich Rising and would love you to send me clips of you dancing to include in the movie. Future Radio 107.8fm (www.futureradio.co.uk/listenlive) will be playing the Campaign song so people can dance with us in their homes, schools, workplaces etc

Please spread the word.

B.Right.On Festival

I have been commissioned by Vince Laws to film the opening events of his B.Right.On Festival in Brighton on 1st February 2013. I'm looking forward to it. I really enjoy working in different parts of the country and I really enjoy working with Vince. He's a bit of a creative dynamo at the mo - his plan to have an exhibition in Brighton has rapidly evolved into a full-on festival with loads of amazing stuff happening throughout the month with all sorts of choirs, artists and activists. It's going to be a joy to make a movie that will promote the festival and capture the magic of Vince's work. It's also another opportunity for OUT140 to spread its wings and fly - Vince will be having speech bubbles of the stories in the library and selling our dinky books. I can't wait for the new OUT140 stories that will come in. Vince was interviewed on Out in Brighton radio show this week. I'm impressed by the podomatic website they use for their podcasts - am thinking making podcasts might be something I should explore.....

Natalie's 30th Birthday

I filmed Natalie Drury's 30th Birthday Party in the summer which was a great pleasure. I first met Natalie and her mum in 2007 when I filmed them for a Carers Assessments DVD. They are a fab family, very passionate about Nat and her independence and her right to a full and happy life. I filmed them again earlier in the year for the Journeys DVD, commissioned by the UEA Nursing School to raise awareness of the needs of patients with learning disabilities. That's when Pauline asked me if I did birthdays too. The party was fantastic - every carer since Natalie was a small child was invited, as well as her big extended family. I captured as much of the action as I could - Pauline's emotional speech, the amazing malteser cake arriving, the singer entertaining everyone on guitar. I also interviewed as many people as possible to find out what makes Natalie so special.....her smile, her family, her personality, her love of chocolate! We uploaded the film to YouTube and facebook so people could watch it online and Natalie has ordered extra copies of the DVD for Christmas presents.

Queer Art Club

I have set up a new group called Queer Art Club with a fantastic artist called Eloise O'Hare. We have both been previous Art Leaders for Norwich Pride. We want to form a club so that artists can meet all year round to share ideas & skills, visit exhibitions, have workshops and talks etc. Our aims are "to make art, make a living and make Norwich Pride amazing". We have been working with Edith Karnitsch from Terra Network to develop a website using WordPress. Edith has been brilliant - very patient with us. 

Here's what we've done so far: www.queerartclub.org.uk. There's a long way to go but what's been interesting is how our ideas about the club have developed as we've worked with Edith to create the website. For example, we want helping artists "to make a living" to be an important focus of our work - part of the reason Eloise couldn't continue as the Arts Leader is that she needs to focus on getting paid for her art. Now I have always been very proud that I have made a sustainable living from my filmmaking but times are hard - with the recession and cuts in government funding, there isn't the same amount of work around that I was used to for my first 10 years in business (during a Labour government). I've never really had to think about marketing myself before - each film advertised the next. Now, film feels like such a luxury compared to saving front-line services. I have to convince people what a vital form of communication it is - and worth paying for.

So how can Queer Art Club help me? Well, there's going to be sections on "Jobs" where people can advertise Jobs they've got available so some interesting bits of work might come up there. We'll also have a "Wanted/Offered" section for equipment so I'm hoping that will help with my clear-out now I have moved from the Tea Lounge. I'm looking forward to picking up new skills from the workshops we'll organise and inspiration from the exhibitions we'll attend. Most of all though, I'm excited about working with more and more artists - Eloise has done some wonderful illustrations for my films; Joe Ballard has been brilliant doing drama and Kimberley Moore has been amazing making music. These are the things that will give Shelly Telly projects "extra value" and make them extra special - well worth investing in.....

Bye Bye Tea Lounge!

It's the end of an era! I have give up my office at the Tea Lounge. In these times of austerity, I have to keep my running costs low. I've also got a huge garage in my new house so plenty of storage space for all the props and costumes and stationery I have amassed across the years! I do want to do a massive clear-out too though so watch this space if you want to pick up some bargains. I will miss Dina and Annemarie and sitting in the kitchen catching up on all the gossip. We marked the occasion, as I always do, with a chocolate cake - this time iced with the word "Bye". Previous cakes have included ACTION, PRIDE, ART, OUT140 and various project names. Don't worry Action Crew - I will continue the proud tradition of starting each new project with a chocolate cake!

Sing with Pride, the Pride choir, were in the paper. This week we headed off to Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes for the pre-Launch of LGBT History Month. We were amazing! I was amazed! We've never sung so well - congratulations to everyone, particularly our Musical Director Mary Lovett who worked really hard to get a great performance out of us. I took the photo of the choir throwing their scarves in the air. I used a really fast shutter speed and took loads. I played with the pics to create this little movie.....

OUT140 in the news

Fab article about the launch of "OUT140: the Little Book of Coming Out Stories" in this week's Great Yarmouth Mercury. I am so very proud of this project. It was brilliant when Sophie from Radio Norfolk said the newsroom staff loved the book and were all fighting to read it. I'm sure it will become an internet/publishing phenomenon at some point!! It has been wonderful to work with Poet/Artist Vince Laws on OUT140. Check out his website www.vincelaws.com and look out for him and his I AM A POEM exhibition in Brighton Library in LGBT History Month in February.

You can read all the OUT140 stories we have collected so far at www.twitter.com/OUT140. You can buy a copy of the book from the Greenhouse Shop on Bethel St or by emailing me at shell@shellytelly.co.uk. It's been lovely developing a book and seeing it in print and it is soooooo dinky - about the size of a credit card. I'd love to do a book about community filmmaking too - I've learnt so much over the last 12 years.

Sew Gay's Pride Patchwork

The Sew Gay group started meeting again today. We meet from 12-2pm on the big table on the first floor of the Millennium Library in the Forum, on the last Saturday of the month. We are doing a brilliant project, led by curator Stevie. We are trying to capture over 50 years of LGBT history in a quilt, each square representing a significant event that year. The inspiration comes from Lillian Dring who in 1951 created the "Patchwork of the Century" for the Festival of Britain. She gathered together women with no sewing experience to produce a quilt documenting advances in women’s rights over 100 years. This photo is of some of the first Pride patches to be completed. The finished quilt is going to be AMAZING. For more information go to www.sewgaynorwich.shutterfly.com

No to Hate in the Advertiser

Great piece in tonight's Norwich Advertiser about the No to Hate Vigil. I particularly like the way that Ann Nicholls from Look, See, Click Photography gets her own blue box acknowledgement for her photo. Ann worked for me on the Young Carers Big Day Out event earlier in the year capturing all the fun on camera. You can see some examples of Ann's work on her Blipfoto site: www.blipfoto.com/lookseeclick. Big thanks to everyone who helped at the Vigil - it's brilliant to see such a strong message from Abraham Eshetu at Norfolk Constabulary about tackling Hate Crime. My friends from Opening Doors also spoke. They are a self-advocacy organisation for people with learning difficulties and it was helping them to to film their Hate Crime conference in 2008 that inspired me to set up Norwich Pride. I was so appalled by the stories of hate crimes against people with disabilities that I felt I needed to do something. I realised that one of the things I had to face first was that I was part of an oppressed minority who also lived in fear of hate - I would think twice before holding my girlfriend's hand in public. So I needed to tackle my own fears first. Being involved in Norwich Pride has given me loads more confidence in myself and my sexuality and I love Opening Doors speaking each year at the Vigil - a reminder that the best way for us to tackle hate crime is for everyone to work together and say No to Hate.

Top 10 Tips for Getting Your Health Check

Don't forget your Health Check! Top 10 Tips for Getting a Health Check is now on YouTube. Thanks to Kimberley Moore for the fabulous music workshop that created the soundtrack and to all the Action Crew who helped to make the film.

My Pride Life

I was invited by Pride Live!, the Norwich Pride Radio Show on Future Radio every Monday at 6.30pm to record My Pride Life - choose six of my favourite songs and explain why they are relevant to me as an LGBT person. I've grabbed some pics of all the artists I chose - can you guess who they are and what the songs might be? You can hear a podcast of My Pride Life if you click here

Action News

 

Came across a couple of my old newsletters the other day and include one here to inspire me to do an up-to-date one soon. Great to see a pic of Natalie Drury in this edition - this was the first time I filmed her and her mum Pauline for a DVD about Carers' Assessments. Natalie was 25 then - I know because I've just filmed her 30th birthday party for her. Also sweet to work out at last how long my team have been playing in the Norwich and District Table Tennis League - looks like this is our 6th year in the bottom division! But the Action tshirts look great! And of course 2007 was the last time I went to Ghana and had such a brilliant experience with Agnes, Evans and the rest of the Action Crew. It was amazing to be with them as they filmed their Chief in his Palace. These are the moments when I realise how much I love being a filmmaker.

No to Hate Vigil

I worked with a talented team of people to organise the fourth No to Hate Vigil to remember victims of hate crime everywhere. I was so very proud of Action Crew member Ki who did a speech based on the voiceover for the film he made for Evolve Youth Group. Ki's story of being born into the wrong body and being bullied at school for being different was very moving on film but even more so in the flesh, surrounded in candles. You can find out more about the Vigil at www.norwichnotohatevigil.org.uk You can listen to my interview about the Vigil with Jasmine on Future Radio and read a report in the Norwich Evening News

Shelly Telly Table Tennis Team

I have got a team in the fourth division of the Norwich and District Table Tennis Division. Thanks to Di, Colin and Ruth for all your skill and hard work. OK, we don't win very much but we always have fun and every year we win a Team of the Month competition at least once! Check out all our results on the NDTTL website

OUT140: The Little Book of Coming Out Stories

OUT140 is a project that artist/poet Vince Laws and I created for Norwich Pride. We asked people to tell us their coming out stories in 140 characters or less - a tweet on Twitter. OUT140 has taken various forms over the last two years - it began as a multimedia show on the Fusion screen in the Forum accompanied by 12 second films; we had the stories printed huge for an exhibition at the Norwich Art Centre; Vince painted them in speech bubbles for an exhibition in Folkestone; and this year we published them as a book. The Norfolk Library and Information Service has bought copies for every Norfolk library and we celebrated this with a launch at Great Yarmouth library today - National Coming Out Day. You can hear a podcast of an article about it on BBC Radio Norfolk. We were delighted that her Worship, the Mayor of Great Yarmouth Colleen Walker and Norfolk County Council Cabinet Member for Cultural Services Barry Stone, helped us celebrate  by raising the rainbow flag and cutting the OUT140 cake. Photo by Antonella Muscat