BRISTOL: GLADSTONES CLINIC

Bristol is, as we know heaving at the moment with different projects. There's a real atmosphere of people getting busy. I thought it would be interesting to get stories from a range of different projects in the city, to kind of take a temperature of the city’s home grown projects, the energy, the hopes and goals and the unifying themes and problems.

The first workshop we delivered was at Gladstone’s treatment centre in a very stately Georgian townhouse in the heart of Bristol.  Following the Centre for Digital Storytelling method more closely that we had hitherto done we were rewarded with some deeply personal stories full of insight and self- awareness. It was interesting to see how crucial giving adequate time to the story circle (in which we share story ideas collectively) proved to be. The group genius really does help to inform and enable a deeper level of insight into the kinds of stories the storytellers feel are really right for them at that particular time.

“Who do you think you are telling the story to?” become a main consideration during the process and it helped the storytellers to focus the stories. Some of the stories were very powerful messages to family members. These proved to be very intimate and they decided the storytellers would prefer to deliver them directly to the family member rather than have them shared publicly.

There was a wide range of technical experience in the room and this encouraged a variety of different approaches to the making of the stories from the use of paintings to some virtuoso video manipulation.

The participants stayed late most nights to finish the stories and there was a real feeling of ownership of the stories they wanted to tell.

A rewarding experience with lots of learning. We had quite an emotional viewing of the films on the last night of the workshop. I think it was a powerful workshop for all involved. 

Thanks again to Avy, Lizzie and Louie for their hard work.