Film to immortalise community spirit of Seven Sisters flats
Movie makers seeking memories and home footage for documentary
HAVING recently been the focus of a poem and a music video, the Seven Sisters tower blocks will soon get their own feature-length film.
Two local film-makers are now working on a new documentary about the College Bank buildings chronicling the stories of their past and present residents.
Rachael Barker, 40, and Casey Shaw, 28, are collaborating on the film, which they hope will explore the history and community of the Seven Sisters buildings.
Tenants living in four of the blocks have already been told by Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) that their homes are
going to be demolished though RBH have guaranteed that all residents who wish to stay in the town centre will be able to do so.
Casey, a Film and Media lecturer said: “The Seven Sisters are symbolic of Rochdale. These homes have been housing people for more than 50 years and are brimming with history from generations of residents.
“Our aim is to celebrate this sense of community and document the experiences, friendships and culture of the seven sisters in the most authentic way.
“We would like to document the stories of past and present residents and investigate the culture which surrounds these homes before demolition.”
Casey, from Waterfoot, Rossendale, has previously made short films and documentaries as part of her Film degree but this will be her first featurelength project.
The pair have just begun production of the documentary and have been establishing links with residents - though they hope to work with other local organisations to “capture the diversity of the town”.
The documentary will utilise archive footage, home footage and interviews, to represent the idea of community.
Casey said: “We have already been gifted some wonderful home footage, captured on 8mm motion picture format which dates to the early days of the seven sisters. The footage really captures the vibrant essence of College Bank Estate in the 1960s.”
Rachael, from Whitworth, teaches Photography and has previously made animations and super 8 experimental films as well as personal documentary photography projects.
She added: “In order to help us capture the spirit of The Seven Sisters, we are asking for people who may live there or have an association with College Bank to get in touch and share their stories.
“We are passionate that people should be the heart of this film and encourage anybody who is interested in getting involved or finding out a little more, to connect with us on Facebook ‘Stories from The Seven Sisters’ or contact us via e-mail: sevensistersdoc@gmail.com.”
Mark Slater, Chairman of the Save Seven Sisters campaign, said residents were excited to see the final product.
He said: “We can see they share our passion in College Bank and it’s history, it’s place in Rochdale historically for the past 50 years plus, and it’s place and vital usefulness for the Community as a whole into the future.
“We think the documentary will correct some of the misconceptions, not just about College Bank but Social Housing in general. The documentary will be able to show the vibrant mix of people that live here, the strengths and possibly the fragile nature of some others that need support.”
The campaign group have previously released a poem, written by a resident of College Bank, and an accompanying video.