NUA students are creating short films to save Elm Hill shops while also exploring the emotional impact the historic street has on our city. 

Vafa Bagheri and Lauren Charles, Norwich University of the Arts students are creating “poetic documentaries” to support Em Hill shops as they have a decline in sales. 

Vafa, the Producer and Creative Director of the project, said “we have travelled to the local sides of the shops but also the magical and emotional layers of them.” 

They want to explore the “emotional relationship between the shopkeepers and the shops but also to the community as well.” 

Vafa met Richard Eagleton, chairman of the Friends of Elm Hill, who asked him if he could create a series of short films about the shops in the street. 

The Friends of Elm Hill aim “to enhance and promote the environment and heritage of Elm Hill and encourage a vibrant street by promoting businesses and encouraging visitors” due to the 16^th century street struggling to stay afloat. 

But for Vafa the project was more personal, “as an international student from Iran… the first time that I went on a walking tour to get to know Norwich well was on Elm Hill, and that was the first place in Norwich that I felt safe”, after that “Norwich for me was like a warm hug.” 

He wanted to create the videos as a “way for me to give back to the community.” 

Lauren, the editor, also explained the project to be “important” to show the history of the street. Elm Hill is known as one of the country’s most well-preserved medieval streets, with it even being the set for some Hollywood films. 

Within the films, both students wanted to create an identity for Elm Hill with particular colour palettes and “graphics that will present Elm Hill as well”,. Vafa mentions, “you are going to hear about their emotional connection to the Hill.” 

As students, these films have been a great experience for those involved to learn more about filmmaking. For Lauren, she has “never done anything like this professionally” but loves editing and wants to continue it for her future. 

However, the process was not perfect . “We have moments that we panic”, Lauren worries, and asks, “are we going to do Elm Hill justice?” But they say, “its normal to doubt yourself” but if you “want to go into film making, just go for it.” 

The films themselves will be screened in Cinema City over the next few months but the pair say for any updates check their social media. 

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons