I Remember is a short film we created in collaboration with Year 5 children from Norwich Primary Academy in Norfolk. It takes the form of an imaginary documentary set 50 years in the future in which the now-elderly interviewees look back on their childhood and in particular the experience of growing up during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We worked with a group of 40 children over the course of a week to create the film - first exploring with them how the world and the children themselves might be different 50 years in the future, and then thinking about memory; what it is we remember most, how we remember it and what things are lost to us in time.

Then over two days we conducted interviews with all the children, asking them to imagine themselves looking back on the tumultuous years of 2020 and 2021 from the safe distance of 2071.

In doing so we hoped to offer a safe space in which the children could begin reflecting on the traumatic experience of the pandemic, placing it into the context of the lives they hope to lead and the changes they foresee happening in the world. In fake moustaches and grey wigs, they told stories about the lives they lead now and the lives they might lead in the future, they explained to us the experience of growing old, and offered their hard-won wisdom to the children of the future.

Conceived, shot and edited by Andy Field & Beckie Darlington
Music by Tom Parkinson

Commissioned by Norfolk & Norwich Festival as part of their Artist at my Place programme

With thanks to Sarah Witcomb, Heather Denny and all the staff and students of Norwich Primary Academy.