If you can’t sleep …

If you want to make a film about why you can’t sleep …

 

At Insomnia Lab we collect stories of insomnia, anything about your sleepless nights. We work with you and your material to create a film. You don’t need previous artistic experience to join Insomnia Lab.

 

The project is inspired by “Barbara’s Eyes”, a short story by Mehrdad Seyf: a tale of one year of insomnia in London and Paris in 1984, interrupted by visits to repertory cinemas, French songs and falling in love with the wrong girl.

 

Using the story as an inspiration, the project is divided into three phases:

 

1. Dream Room: You will be invited to have a confidential one-to-one conversation to share ideas, stories and thoughts about sleepless nights.

 

2. Audiovisual script: You will meet other contributors in small groups to share stories and ideas, and together create an audiovisual script. The group will include 30 Bird’s film maker and artistic director. Contributions could be text, images, photos, videos, oral recordings or anything else you bring to the table.

 

3. Film creation: Creation of a film based on the audiovisual script. All material will go through rigorous discussion and review in the group. Authorship of the film will belong to 30 Bird and you, the participants.

 

If you are interested and would like to share your experience with us, please email insomnialab@30bird.org and we'll get in touch with you.

 

Insomnia Lab is an inclusive project. We welcome those who identify themselves with being Black, South Asian, East Asian, West Asian, disabled, LGBTQIA, White and those who don’t identify themselves with any of these categories. We are aware that the debate on diversity is a fluid one and categories do not always represent the complexity of human experience. 30 Bird's work aims to draw on and reflect the full range of backgrounds and perspectives to be found in society. We are therefore keen to explore a variety of experiences informed by insomnia.

 

Insomnia Lab is a participatory, socially engaged interdisciplinary project, in collaboration with Cambridge Music Festival and The Cambridge Junction, supported by the Arts Council England.