Common Ground: Artists’ Residency at Gas Lane, Bristol
Artist(s): Esther May Campbell and Chiz Williams
Dates: 2024-25
Partners: Screenology, The Dings Park Youth Club
Client: Watkin Jones
A six-month residency by artists Esther May Campbell and Chiz Williams – working with Screenology and The Dings Park Youth Club – has led to The Up of The Down, an epic new film and 21st-century myth.
Film: The Up of The Down
The Up of The Down is a new film made in collaboration with more than 40 people, from students at the pioneering film school Screenology, to local workers, residents, and the youth club in Dings Park, Bristol.
Commissioned by Ginkgo Projects on behalf of Watkin Jones, the film is the result of a six-month residency for Esther May Campbell and Chiz Williams embedded in the neighbourhood around Gas Lane in central Bristol – an area shaped by layered histories and shifting futures.
The film was born out of the Common Ground project (2024–25), led by Campbell and Williams. This experimental and collaborative process focused on watching, waiting and responding to the everyday environment. It was often playful, intrepid and mischievous, resulting in a fictional tale shaped by real people and places.
The Up of The Down explores themes of creation and destruction, history and imagination, dust and play. Built from hundreds of black-and-white still images, interviews, field recordings and original music, it becomes a cinematic collage of place and people, enquiring about time, transformation and belonging.
Flyer for film workshops at Screenology, courtesy Esther May Campbell and Chiz Williams
Made in Collaboration
The project began with workshops and collaborations with Screenology students and the Youth Club at The Safe 'Ouse and gradually expanded to involve over 40 contributors. Participants included established residents, shop owners, construction workers, school children and many others whose lives intersect with this part of the city. Through these devised and improvised encounters comes a fantastical and moving story.
The locations include The Dings, Gas Lane, Feeder Road and Silverthorne Lane; areas that have evolved from marshland to centres of 19th-century industry and workers’ housing. More recently, they’ve been home to craftspeople, traders, salvage yards and small-scale makers, and are now seeing rapid redevelopment.
The film also features a journey to Dunraven Bay in the Vale of Glamorgan.
The project was made possible with the support of partners and collaborators including The Dings Community Association, Screenology, Jacks Lab and Martin Parr Foundation.
Following a well-received local premiere, The Up of The Down is now preparing to travel further afield.
Image from The Up of The Down (2025) Courtesy of Esther May Campbell and Chiz Williams
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About Esther May Campbell
Esther May Campbell explores the links between image-making, story and play, while creating compelling images and films for public transmission. Intrigued by the potential to co-create via myth, ritual and old analogue photography, images emerge that are moving and alarming. She is often found working with young people around her kitchen table in Bristol. However, recent commissions further afield include image making with children in the Wye for the River Festival (2023/4), exploring songlines of city woodlands for MAYK (2024) and re-animating the concrete of Acton for the London Short Film Festival (2024). She completed a ten-month residency at St Paul’s Adventure Playground resulting in a city-wide exhibition and publication, ScrapBook. To date, her images have been published in books, films and print media, while farmyard exhibitions have touched thousands. Her explorations are generously funded by The Arts Council, WECA, Channel 4, BBC, BFI amongst others.
About Chiz Williams
Chiz Williams is co-founder and Lead Mentor at Kin – an intergenerational collective of community-makers. Current occupations include coaching at Packers FC – a community football club, being a director of Cables & Cameras, venue and production disco-ordination and co-developing RADMIN programmes that explore 'what artists can do for business'. His most consistent work in the last 23 years is as part of the workforce at the Cube Cinema, Bristol.
About Screenology
Based in the heart of Bristol, Screenology is a production company and film learning centre. Led by creative entrepreneur Tom Brereton Downs, Screenology was established in 2015 as a “film school for the 21st century”. In partnership with Plymouth Marjon University, Screenology offers its students a learn-by-doing approach. Many of their graduates have gone on to work for high-profile TV shows and channels, large YouTube channels and some setting up their own creative businesses.