Framing Nature (16mm film): Coatham Marsh SSRI

Framing Nature (forthcoming) is a 16mm research film by Forms of Circulation (Sarah Perks and Paul Stewart), commissioned through Natural England-funded contract research developed in partnership with The Wildlife Trust. Produced as part of research at Coatham Marsh Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), the film investigates relationships between communities, ecology and protected landscapes through experimental moving-image methodologies. Drawing upon Forms of Circulation’s wider practice-based research into landscape, industrial histories and place-based experience, the work combines Perks’ research in curatorial and socially engaged methodologies with Stewart’s moving-image practice exploring duration, materiality and spatial encounter through analogue film processes.

Developed through community workshops, dialogue and site-responsive research, Framing Nature uses 16mm film not solely as a mode of representation but as a research methodology through which new understandings of environmental experience may emerge. Extending Forms of Circulation’s wider body of work across The Teesside Trilogy, the film explores questions of access, care, environmental change and multispecies coexistence through sensory and affective forms of enquiry. The interdisciplinary production incorporates soundtrack contributions by artist Rosie Carr, musicians A Man Called Adam, Director of Photography Christo Wallers and further collaborators, creating a layered and collaborative approach to environmental storytelling and ecological research.