Ayah’s story!

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archives, birmingham, catherine osler, film, kings norton girls school, re-enactment

I have been part of the suffragettes project Fight for the Right. I play Mrs Osler, who is the leader of the Birmingham suffragists.

Mrs Catherine Osler, leader of Birmingham Suffragists

Ayah as Mrs Osler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has been such an amazing experience to be a part of. We started the project by looking at archives, we also went to London to see the Houses of Parliament – that was such a fun day. We then went on to preparing a script and having acting lessons where we came up with ideas to put in the script. Filming was tiring but such an extraordinary experience – we really felt like actors! The school scene was the first time we saw the lighting and microphones. We were all amazed at how professional it was.

The week after we all got into our costumes and got our hair and makeup done, for the outside scenes. It was very exciting, however, it was a very cold day! We all did the big march scene and Imogen and I also had to do a scene with a journalist. It was quite amusing when a little girl came up with her mum and told her that we must famous because we were shooting a film. Lots of people stared at us and took pictures of our extravagant costumes. We all felt like movie stars. The scenes which were in Birmingham City Council House only took half day to shoot. I had to give a speech in an extravagantly decorated corridor. Tabby, who is playing Asquith’s assistant, also had her scene here. I can’t wait until the film comes out!

Ayah

more behind the scenes

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asquith, birmingham, catherine osler, david lloyd george, kings norton girls school, re-enactment

Yesterday we completed our third day of fliming! This time we filmed scenes set inside Birmingham City’s Council House in Victoria Square. Here’s a selection of photos from the day:

‘Lloyd George’ rehearsing his lines

‘Asquith’ and his assistant

fight for the right!

Mrs Catherine Osler, leader of Birmingham Suffragists

 

And action!

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bertha ryland, birmingham, catherine osler, drama, equality, fawcett, feminism, film, hilda burkitt, history, kings norton girls school, militant, protest, re-enactment, suffrage, suffragettes, suffragists, vote, waverley school, women's rights, wspu

Filming Fight for the Right: the Birmingham Suffragettes has now begun in earnest. Last week we filmed two scenes at Kings Norton Girls School, including the opening scene set in a present day classroom.

Filming the opening scene

filming Bertha Ryland
Photo courtesy of Matthew Ward @historyneedsyou

police harrassment!
Photo courtesy of Matthew Ward @historyneedsyou

Yesterday both schools came together at Birmingham Archives & Heritage to film 6 scenes, including one of the most pivotal incidents, when the suffragettes and suffragists march together. We also filmed Hilda Burkitt and Bertha Ryland as they plan their protest for Prime Minister Asquith’s visit to Birmingham, and a scene featuring Catherine Osler, also discussing the visit of Asquith and her outrage at women being prevented from attending the meeting.

journalist quizzing Mrs Osler & Mrs Fawcett
Photo courtesy of Matthew Ward @historyneedsyou

Mrs Catherine Osler
Photo courtesy of Matthew Ward @historyneedsyou

the arrest of Hilda Burkitt
Photo courtesy of Matthew Ward @historyneedsyou

On Thursday we will finish shooting scenes that feature Prime Ministers Asquith and Lloyd George and Mrs Osler and Mrs Fawcett. In a few weeks we will film the scenes that show Bertha Ryland planning her attack on a painting at the Art Gallery and the scenes with Hilda Burkitt in Winson Green, undergoing the ordeal of forcible feeding.

Both groups of participants have been absolutely amazing! Their positivity and enthusiasm was infectious (even when standing around in freezing cold temperatures!) and Sima Gonsai and myself have had a brilliant time working with them. The film already looks very special indeed and we can’t wait for people to see it, hopefully towards the end of June. We’d also really like to say a HUGE thanks to all of our supporters, particularly Nikki Thorpe, Don Hazzard and Richard Albutt for their amazing help and support, Matthew Ward, Ellie Dobson & Rosalind Fursland, who were brilliant extras on the shoot, staff at the Archives, the Heritage Lottery Fund and Birmingham City Council for their help with this project – we couldn’t have done it without them.

Nicola

Tabby the suffragist
Photo courtesy of Matthew Ward @historyneedsyou

journalist & passerby
Photo courtesy of Matthew Ward @historyneedsyou

Sima Gonsai, director
Photo courtesy of Matthew Ward @historyneedsyou

Nicola Gauld, project manager
Photo courtesy of Matthew Ward @historyneedsyou

Almost ready to start filming!

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asquith, bertha ryland, birmingham, catherine osler, fawcett, film, hilda burkitt, history, kings norton girls school, protest, re-enactment, suffragettes, suffragists, waverley school

Things are hotting up on our project now and filming begins next week! We have now cast our main characters:

From Kings Norton – Ayah and Imogen will play Catherine Osler and Mrs Fawcett, Tabby will play Asquith’s assistant.

rehearsals at Kings Norton

 

 

 

 

From Waverley, Faisa is going to play Hilda Burkitt, with her colleague Ellen Barnwell being played by Najma, Falis is playing Bertha Ryland and Nibah and Adna will play prison nurses.

The other members of the group will play suffragettes and will be involved in a protest scene that we are going to shoot in Brimingham’s Victoria Square on March 25th so come along and say hello!

 

Telling stories part 2

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birmingham, drama, history, kings norton girls school, waverley school, workshops

Here are some images from the latest workshops where we have been devising the scenes for our film. It’s almost half term so the production team will be working hard on the final scripts, taking all the suggestions and ideas of both sets of students into account. After the holidays we’ll then allocate roles and begin our rehearsals!

 

Nellie Hall

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asquith, birmingham, first world war, militant, museum, nellie hall, suffragettes, wspu

The second phase of our project has now started – this is when we take the historical material and ideas that we’ve gathered over the past few months and begin to think about how we can use it in our films. Firstly, however, both schools visited the new History Galleries at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery to see a fantastic display of items that belonged to Nellie Hall, a militant suffragette, and to see some films that Sima Gonsai had made for the galleries about the early history of Birmingham.

Nellie Hall display at Birmingham Museum History Galleries

Nellie Hall was born into a very politically active family – her father was a radical journalist and her mother was involved in the formation of the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903, when Nellie would have been around 10 years old. Nellie was involved in the fight for women’s right to vote from an early age – she was one of the suffragettes who came to Birmingham to protest against Prime Minister Asquith in 1913 and was arrested for smashing windows of the Grand Hotel, as Asquith delivered a speech. For this, she was imprisoned at Winson Green and underwent forcible feeding. Some of the items on display include a letter Nellie sent to her father, Leonard, when she was in Winson Green. We were particularly struck by Nellie’s remark that ‘no free spirit has ever been wrecked by a mean-spirited oppression yet. And mine won’t be either’. She also describes how she inherited from her parents ‘a love of liberty and the spirit to fight for it’.

We also learnt that during the First World War, when Nellie was living in Birmingham, she had written to recruiting officers requesting that she be allowed to train for the Home Defence. She received a somewhat patronising reply, advising her that the best way she could assist the war effort was by persuading any men she knew to enlist. It was clear to us how determined Nellie was during her fight for women’s rights and her story will provide much inspiration for our films.

Sima then talked us through the films that she had made for the galleries. Moving Here was a collaboration between the museum and students from Birmingham School of Acting which explores the theme of migration to Birmingham during medieval times and beyond, specifically focusing on why people moved here. Looking at these allowed the students involved in Fight for the Right to start to envision how they can use the research they’ve done in different ways to explore the history of the suffragette cause in Birmingham.

Visit from Shabana Mahmood

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birmingham, equality, labour party, ladywood, parliament, politics, vote

Last week we welcomed Labour MP for Birmingham Ladywood, Shabana Mahmood, to the archive. We were really pleased Shabana could come and talk to us and it was an extremely interesting session.

Shabana Mahmood, MP

Shabana told us what it was like for her as a young Asian woman in politics today, one of only a handful currently in Parliament and also one of the first female Muslim MPs. While she has faced occasional sexism from male counterparts this has not stopped her from progressing through the party to her current position as Shadow Minister for Higher Education.

She told us that she had grown up in a politically-active family and has always been supported by her family throughout her career. We also heard how much hard work is involved in being a politician and the effect it has on social and personal life. It was really important for our group to meet such a successful female politician and to think about Shabana’s journey within the wider context of women’s rights. It was the perfect session before we visit Parliament. We only wish she could have stayed longer! Thanks Shabana!

Birmingham Weekly Mercury

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birmingham, militant, protest, suffragettes

Weekly Mercury

Suffragists resume militant tactics

Birmingham Weekly Mercury

We found this newspaper article in the Birmingham city archives in amongst other suffragette materials. It shows that the suffragists bombarded a police parade and flaunted their banners for women’s right to vote. It also shows how the policemen moved them on their way but the women started throwing bricks at cars.

We found this intriguing because it shows what lengths women would go to, to fight for their right to vote.

“Do they think they will compel ‘mere men’ to give them what they want by behaving like a lot of ruffians and dong wanton and wilful damage to property” – a quote from Moor Pool News – 13/3/1913

This shows that some people believed the ways in which suffragettes put across their views was not appreciated and therefore made some people disagree even more with what they were trying to say.

We got involved with the project because we strongly believe in the women’s suffragette movement and it is a brilliant project to be involved with because we’re bringing it back to life and we get to experience opportunities that we never thought we would be a part of.

Emily and Frankie

Painting attacked!

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art gallery, bertha ryland, birmingham, library, museum, paintings, prison, protest, punishment, suffragettes, violence

While looking through the different sources at the Birmingham Archives, we came across this photograph of a painting which had been slashed three times by a suffragette called Bertha Ryland. At the time, the painting was on display at Birmingham Art Gallery on loan from a private collection.

Master Thornhill by Romney, attacked by Bertha Ryland

Lucy and Imogen: ‘it was a miracle that Bertha got in with the knife because everyone was checked before entering the gallery but she hid it up her sleeve. This suggests that she had thought the plan through, showing how determined these women were. The incident had some serious consequences such as women not being allowed in the gallery as well as imprisonment for the individual guilty of the crime. It is not one of their most memorable actions by the suffragettes as if you look it up a different, more famous painting comes up. However, the action of slashing a painting at the time would have been quite shocking and would have certainly caught the publics’ attention’.

Archive workshop

Nabeela looked at another violent incident that took place in Birmingham: ‘Northfield Library got burned down by the suffragettes, who left a book and note saying ‘this is for your new library’. The book was by Emmeline Pankhurst but we don’t know what happened to it. The suffragettes were those who were violent and were thrown in prison for their actions. Suffragists were those who protested quietly and were more peaceful’.

Our Second Visit to Birmingham Archives

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birmingham, first world war, suffrage, suffragettes, suffragists, vote

Don Hazzard, Ariadne, Tabby and Ayah from Kings Norton Girls School, Nikki Thorpe

During November, Kings Norton Girls’ School visited Birmingham Archives for the second time. In the image shown above, Don Hazzard talks to the girls regarding how most soldiers after the First World War rapidly changed their opinion on whether women should be given the right to vote or not.

The main reason men changed their minds about letting women vote was because there were lots of female nurses at the front line in the War who died alongside the soldiers; so men thought that if women were that responsible then they should be rewarded the privilege to vote.

Dwelling on this subject, Mr Hazzard informed the girls of the tragic stories some of these females went through in order to politely and respectfully achieve this right – these well-mannered ladies were known as suffragists. Furthermore, the fact that women were able to take on the everyday roles of hard-working men drastically projected the women’s responsibility and trust to accomplish tasks appropriately and effectively to those men especially in high status.

Overall, we enjoyed listening to these true life tales Don informed us of as well as the actual reasoning of how women overpowered men’s traditional thinking of a woman, who was completely single-minded, too emotional and non-worthy of such a privilege. To conclude, still today women need to gain that equality in some areas of the world for several reasons. Looking at these old strategies and methods may help us dearly in the near or far future.

Blythe and Tabby