4. Rush
Felicity Irons is one of the last remaining UK rush weavers, recently receiving a British Empire Medal for her services to Rush and Heritage Crafts. This film is a meditative portrait on the centuries old processes of the bulrush harvest and the close knit team behind the regeneration of this ancient craft.
Unchanged from Anglo Saxon times, the work exists within the constraints of the natural seasons and relies solely on manual labour for a successful summer harvest. Through the team’s reflections, the film touches on inherent frictions between this increasingly unfamiliar way of life and modern expectations.
This film was captured on 8mm and 16mm Kodak film stocks.