Visualising Redundancy: Reflections on collaborating with filmmakers on

‘Watermark’

Tim Strangleman

Visualising Redundancy: Reflections on collaborating with filmmakers on ‘Watermark’

• Introduction to Watermark Film

• Reflection on themes of the film

• Reflection on what film adds to the sociological imagination

• Watermark

Introduction to the Watermark Film Project

• 300 years of paper production in Dover, Kent

• Buckland Mill closes in 2000

• Watermark film aimed to reflect on closure

Reflection on Themes of the FilmMethodological Challenges

• Work meaning & identity

• Workplace culture• Community in & around

work• How industry & labour

are remembered after closure

• Smokestack nostalgia?

Reflection on what film adds to the Sociological Imagination

• Methodological problems of:– Understanding and

capturing identity– Capturing and

articulating emotion– Understanding

attachment to work– Problematising nostalgia

t.strangleman@kent.ac.uk