About Coronavirus Stories & Community Stories Cornwall

Documenting stories of ordinary people living through extraordinary times!

Local communities in Cornwall talk about their experience of the Coronavirus Pandemic

As the UK Government set out further changes to ease lockdown measures in England on 4th July 2020, Mor Media Charity launched Part 1 of the 'Coronavirus Stories' project after being awarded Community Funding.

The idea for Coronavirus Stories came out of a conversation on how we document the experiences of communities during the Coronavirus crisis and resulting lockdown. How do we come together while staying apart? At a time when the news cycle is saturated with global issues, we wanted to turn our attention to our immediate community - the residents of our street.

We asked St Thomas Street in Penryn, a mixture of residential, social, private and multiple housing to contribute their stories and their thoughts on the theme ‘together’ during this time, selecting strong and diverse voices, each showing a different side to community life here in Cornwall.

The second cohort of stories explores the lives of Cornish people beyond the pandemic. Five media professionals, Gemma Gilbert (Ebb and Flow Media), Annie Bungeroth, Morag Robertson (French & Scott Media), Clare Tavernor (Phono Films) and Amber Phipps, gathered records of people's experiences from all around the county.

By contributing to this shared history, we hope to bring the community closer together and discover the diversity of experiences and perspectives that can be found behind every door on every street. The project shows a different side to community life in Cornwall creating important audiovisual records for future generations.

“I’ve worked down South Crofty tin mine, been blown up three times, been shot twice, worked with the circus, skied all 'round the world… but never a pandemic like this, I don’t think anyone has… It’s unprecedented .”

-Nick

How it all started

Documentary Filmmaker Clare Tavernor of Phono worked on the series of short audio interviews with the residents of the Street in Penryn, Cornwall.

“I’m used to landing in sweltering climates and climbing into vans with armed guards in order to make films about art and culture around the world. When lockdown was announced, I wondered whether it would be the end of me documenting fascinating stories… but it turns out I only had to knock on my neighbours door.” - Clare Tavernor

The Cornwall Film Festival charity was established in 2002 and run by a small team, freelancers and volunteers. It was founded by a group of filmmakers to advance the education of the public in the art of cinematography, filmmaking and other forms of moving images including films in the Cornish language. It now delivers not just the Film Festival, but clubs, events, education, training and opportunities in the media industry, working with groups facing social, cultural or economic exclusion from the richness of media culture.

“I’m a member of extinction rebellion, so I have quite a sense that this is a crisis within a crisis, and the larger crisis of the environment is all around us… we’ve got to localise to survive ”

— Sarah at Picketts Yard

Listen To All Stories:

About The National Lottery Community Fund

The National Lottery Community Fund is the largest community funder in the UK – they award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Coronavirus Stories is a ViewPoint community media project production.

Produced by

Gemma Gilbert (Ebb and Flow Media), Annie Bungeroth, Morag Robertson (French & Scott Media), Clare Tavernor (Phono Films) and Amber Phipps.