Resistance: which way the future by Artist Liz Crow
(presented by Roaring Girl Productions)
An award-winning, provocative and hauntingly beautiful Film installation
Resistance: which way the future? is the latest project from award-winning media production company Roaring Girl Productions (RGP). A timely and hopeful work, it explores the marginalisation of a minority social group and asks what can be done to prevent oppression in the future.
Resistance is a dual-screen interactive installation, comprising drama and documentary films and an immersive audio-video experience, which takes as its starting point the Nazi programme of mass-murder targeting disabled people living in institutions and, importantly, disabled people’s resistance to it. The opening film follows the story of Elise, a patient who sweeps the institution. She doesn’t speak but watches everything. She watches buses full of Patients leave and return empty. When it’s her turn, she knows what’s in store. Based on real events, this is the story of one woman’s resistance in the only way she could.
Over a decade in the making, it is the latest project from award-wining writer-director Liz Crow, whose previous work has been shown at Tate Modern and the British Film Institute and who recently made a controversial appearance on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square as part of sculptor Antony Gormley’s One & Other project.
Resistance was launched in Liverpool in November 2009 as part of DaDa Fest. The moving installation won the prestigious ‘Best Exhibition Award’ from Liverpool Daily Post, and was described as one of the most powerful elements of the festival.
Liz Crow said: “This is an episode of history that is virtually hidden, yet the values that underpinned it still echo through disabled people’s lives today. It is a timely piece of work that I hope people will not only be moved, but also empowered by. I want people to come away feeling inspired to get involved, be effective and find the courage to be a part of change. Resistance is about a sense of possibility.”
One visitor wrote of his experience of Resistance: “I’ve seen the installation about three times now. The great thing about it is that it tells a very small group of people’s stories and I think part of the problem with the scale of the holocaust is that it’s just too big to understand. The film helps you to begin to get your head around it…these were real people with real stories and families”
“Resistance is a timely and indeed urgent work that should be compulsory viewing for anyone who thinks we’ve learnt from the mistakes of the past. We haven’t. It is a stunning and stark wake up call for us all.”
Liz Carr, comedian and activist
Today, when rising hate crime, increased pre-natal screening and abortion, and a race to assisted suicide challenge the worth of disabled people’s lives and even their right to exist, Resistance confronts a dark chapter of human history and invites the audience to reflect on the values of the past and how they can help to shape a society that delights in diversity.
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Launch 10th February, 5.30pm-8pm
10th February – 3rd March
Open 9am-9pm Weekdays, 9am-5pm Saturdays
Zion Arts Centre, 335 Stretford Road,Manchester, M15 5ZA
