Black Strangers

An intimate filmic conversation on belonging: After seeing him mentioned on a Bishop’s Transcript held in Gloucestershire Archives, Dan goes for a walk in the woods in search of Daniel, a man buried in Nympsfield on December 31, 1719 and described on the document as “a black stranger”. Whilst walking Dan talks directly to Daniel, speculating about the potential parallels between him and his namesake, from walking routes and speeds to shoe sizes and foot lumps, and opening up to Daniel about how he’s also been made to feel like a black stranger in Gloucestershire after his involvement in a contested heritage debate in his hometown of Stroud. Dan then goes on to wrestle aloud with the problems that come with trying to read the archive at face value and fill in its gaps before trying to think up a fitting way to celebrate the departed Daniel.

Production Dan Guthrie. Production companies Dan Guthrie (Stroud, United Kingdom), Independent Cinema Office (London, United Kingdom), LUX (London, United Kingdom). Director Dan Guthrie. Screenplay Dan Guthrie. Cinematography Nielsan Bohl, Conrad Bohl. Camera assistant Elizabeth Jordan. Editing Dan Guthrie. Sound design Mae-Li Evans. Sound Mae-Li Evans, Felix Taylor. Sound mixing Felix Taylor. With Dan Guthrie (Narrator).

Dan Guthrie is an artist-filmmaker, film programmer, and writer whose practice often investigates and interrogates historical and contemporary Black presences and mis-presences with an interest in examining how they manifest themselves in rural areas. Recent presentations of his work include Whitstable Biennale, MIRROR (Arts University Plymouth), the Independent Cinema Office and LUX’s “Right of Way” screening tour. He is an awardee of the 2022 Michael O’Pray Prize for new writing on the moving image, part of the programming team for the 18th edition of Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival and a member of Stroud District Council’s Community Representation Taskforce.

Films: 2018: Seven Stages (3 min.). 2019: Three Young Men on a Bench (2 min.), albion, refreshed (2 min.). 2021: Coaley Peak (A Fragment) (6 min.). 2022: Black Strangers.