Hope Strickland's 2024 FVU-commissioned film a river holds a perfect memory (2024) features as part of "Toward The Forest" — a screening and fundraiser at FormaHQ in support of Jamaica’s recent hurricane devastation.

Presented by FormaHQ resident James Jordan Johnson, "Toward The Forest" will take place from 7pm-10pm on Thursday 27 November at FormaHQ with films by James alongside Kadeem Oak, Dan Guthrie, and Hope Strickland.

a river holds a perfect memory (2024) meanders gently across waterways in Jamaica, through leisure activities such as rafting on the Martha Brae River and a night-time boat trip in Falmouth’s bioluminescent Lagoon. In the UK, archival footage tracks industrial impact upon the landscape in Northern England - as water becomes a resource and a reservoir is constructed in Rochdale.

The film considers the interrelation of water, memory and labour and plays with techniques of refusal, errantry and repetition. Through the divergent and overlapping temporalities of working across archival footage, newly shot 16mm and LIDAR scans, the film uses water to track the impact of the industrial revolution and labour migration upon supposedly disparate communities.

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Commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella and Touchstones Rochdale with support from HOME, Manchester. Supported using public funding by Arts Council England.