Overview

Hidden Herstories

In July 2009 the Octavia Foundation began an 18 month youth-led film project, which gave 20 local young people the opportunity to produce, research, direct and edit an hour long documentary film called ‘Hidden Herstories: Women of Change’.

The film focuses on the lives of four extraordinary women; Octavia Hill, Amy Ashwood Garvey, Claudia Jones and Jayaben Desai, all of whom had a remarkable impact on the issues of race relations and social change.

View the trailer

The Octavia Foundation ran the project in partnership with the Institute of Race Relations, HistoryTalk and the Black Cultural Archives, and the film builds on the success and enthusiasm of the Foundation’s previous award winning youth-led film ‘Grove Roots’.

Premiere and tour

‘Hidden Herstories’ premiered at the London School of Economics on the 6th March 2010 as part of the International Women’s Day celebrations.

The film was met with great praise, both for the quality of the documentary itself, as well as the talent and hard work of the young people who made it.

In March 2010 ‘Hidden Herstories' embarked on a screening tour across London, as well as being shown in schools and colleges. The success of the film has also meant that it has been shown in various venues throughout the UK, including the Octavia Hill Birthplace Museum, Wisbech and the University of Leeds. In October 2010, 'Hidden Herstories' was screened at the University of Oxford.

Further afield the film was shown as part of the Trinidad and Tobago film festival!

The film was broadcast on the Community Channel in March 2012 to celebrate International Women's Day

Resources

As part of the project, our team of young film-makers also produced a bespoke website, music track and magazine publication to support the film and to provide further information about the four featured women. To visit the site and to download the magazine, please click here.