An Archive of Practical Solidarity (ongoing)

This series of short intimate films play with conventions of film portraiture and includes: Elvira (4k video with 5.1 surround sound, 2021). Elvira is training in ‘tactileography’ a form of mammography that engages and recognises the sensitivity of visually impaired women to detect very small changes in breast tissue at an early stage. The film explores the impact of Elvira’s physical and communication training to become an ‘Medical Tactile Examiner’ and her experience negotiating her training during the pandemic. Oral narration experiments with the conventions of audio description. Slipping into poetic narration this descriptive text blends rhythmically with interview excerpts and soundbites from the recordeded workshop.