My time as a student volunteer at Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival 2025 in Hawick, Scotland, brought me an entirely new perspective on the importance of Community when working in film events. The kindness of the Alchemy team was truly what made my experience so wonderful. The vast variety of exhibitions, screenings and events allowed me to understand and advance my knowledge and interest in experimental film, which I feel was much more limited before my time at Alchemy. A particular favourite was Isabel Barfod’s exhibition: ‘How Much Air Lungs Can Hold’, exploring relationships between Blackness and swimming. Barfod’s combined use of abstract underwater footage, animated sequences and brilliant soundtrack made the piece profoundly inviting and wonderfully captured the euphoric nature of swimming, emphasising the importance of swimming spaces offering an inclusive environment, valuing the power of Community, something I believe Alchemy so firmly values.

In conversation with the production assistant, Samhradh Douglas, we spoke about her parents’ experience of Hawick and Alchemy, both of them having been born and raised in London. They felt that the festival and town were like London in the 1970s, rich with cohesive communities and intimacy. Reflecting on conversations with my Dad, who moved to London in the early 80s, I can recognise what we’re missing, particularly in these difficult times of division and hatred and, as a result, loss of Community. Talking to locals, whether at Alchemy or the lovely Scots man on horseback who I met when swimming in the River Teviot, gave me an insight into Hawick’s history. In particular, I learnt about ‘common riding’, a horse riding tradition which marks the Scottish borders. These insights left me with a deep respect for the Scots’ sense of pride and desire to share their history and traditions with us.

This brings me to the Ceilidh, the most wholesome and heartwarming experience I had during my time at Alchemy. I am so grateful we were invited to join in and learn these Scottish dances. In addition, project coordinator, Zuzana Fryntova, ensured we all were able to attend various short film programmes, something I particularly enjoyed, and this advanced my understanding of how short film programmes work and what qualities are required to curate a successful short film programme. A particular favourite was the ‘Places We Knew’ shorts, where “seven films pondered erasure and reanimation, community and memory, and loss as its own form of presence”.

Alchemy’s strong values were so firmly reflected in its exhibitions, screenings, shorts and events and this short film programme was entirely representative of these values. The combined use of digressive narration, distressed celluloid footage and found footage, in addition to various experimental filmmaking techniques, meant that I was able to understand and truly ‘absorb’ the themes and messages portrayed.