2018
1m 58s
Amongst the things that the charity shops won’t take, a box of cassette tapes belonging to the artist’s partner’s grandmother, now resident in a care home. Cataloguing these objects, this video speculates on the life of someone she didn’t really know very well.
Granny Duncan is my partner’s grandmother. Last winter, she was moved into a care home.
I didn’t know her very well, and I say didn’t, because I don’t think she’s recognised me since before she was hospitalised. I met her three, maybe four times before she broke her elbow when she slipped on the ice in her garden. Her house was sold, and we moved everything out over about a week, in a rush, without really knowing what to do with that house full of all the stuff of someone’s life. Most of it had to go to the local recycling centre, but almost all of the small things ended up stacked in our spare bedroom. It’s been slowly but surely either been stashed away for when she settles in or sent to Oxfam. There are, however, things that the charity shops won’t take.
A box of cassette tapes, that I can’t play. I don’t think they’re all hers. I think there are some that belong to her daughters, and some to her grandsons, but they don’t want them, might not remember them.
See the list of titles here.
Granny Duncan’s Tape Collection_Jessie Growden.pdf
Screenings:
FilmFort: Treefort Music Fest, Boise, Idaho, USA, 23/3/19
Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, 5/5/19
DunsPlayFest, Duns, 9/5/19
Borders Book Festival, 14/6/19
NAUTILUS: BEEF Shed at Supernormal Festival 2019, Oxfordshire, 2-4/8/19
Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle, 4/10/19
Pix Film Gallery, Toronto, 15/11/19
Filmhuis Cavia, Amsterdam, 6/12/19
CCA, Glasgow, 7/12/19
The Stove Network, Dumfries, 14/2/20
Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival 2023
Jessie Growden 