The Miners' Hymns

The Miners’ Hymns is an homage in film and music to the coal mining history of North East England, for which Forma initiated a first time collaboration between renowned American filmmaker Bill Morrison and acclaimed Icelandic musician and composer Jóhann Jóhannsson.

Collaged from footage excavated from the BFI National Archives and local archives by Morrison, the film is a powerful and poignant evocation of a recent past that is widely forgotten. The Miners’ Hymns celebrates the sense of vibrant community, rich, self-organised culture and the forbearance that characterised the dangerous lives of those who worked underground, and the places in which they lived, whilst marking the demise of the mining industry not only as the end of a way of life, but as the last gasp of the Industrial Revolution. In the midst of our current economic crisis, another watershed moment, the piece offers a timely reminder of how we used to live and work in Britain’s industrial age.

A continuing legacy of the coal mining industry is the brass band tradition. Brass bands began in County Durham, and became integral to the mining communities, with miners as the bands’ self-taught players. The resurgent annual Durham Miners’ Gala culminates in a blessing of brass band banners at Durham Cathedral, making it the ideal setting for The Miners Hymns. Johannson’s score draws upon the region’s brass music culture; it will be performed live by a specially assembled ensemble of classically trained brass musicians and brass band players from the NASUWT Riverside Band, with organist Robert Houssart, led by Icelandic conductor Gudni Franzson. The music provides an elegiac and atmospheric soundtrack to Morrison’s cinematic images.

Bill Morrison’s films are frequently made for screening with live music, and he has worked in this way with some of today’s most acclaimed contemporary classical composers including John Adams, Gavin Bryars and Steve Reich. Similarly, Jóhannsson is a composer for film, dance and theatre and has collaborated previously with other musicians including Marc Almond, Barry Adamson and Pan Sonic. The collaborative nature of both artists’ work extends into the performance of The Miners’ Hymns, with Morrison cueing the film sequences to the music in a live video mix.

Related links

Bill Morrison
Jóhann Jóhannsson
Diary
"The words were an affirmation of miners' pride, of a job unique in the sacrifices, strength and courage it required of those who plunged below ground to hew the fuel that made Britain a world power and saw the nation through two world wars."
Robert Chesshyre, The Independent (read full article)
A version of this article appears in the programme for The Miners' Hymns.

Further information for presenters of Forma projects

Professional

20 November - 26 November 2011 | IDFA | Amsterdam, NL

The Miners' Hymns screened at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA) during November 2012.

20 April - 1 May 2011 | Tribeca Film Festival | New York, US

The Miners' Hymns was invited to stage its world premiere screening (as a finished film) at Tribeca Film Festival 2011

15 & 16 July 2010 | Durham Cathedral | BRASS: Durham International Festival, Durham, UK

7-8pm, 16 July 2010

Durham Town Hall, Market Place, Durham, DH1 3NJ
Bill Morrison and Jóhann Jóhannsson discuss the making of The Miners' Hymns before the final performance (free with event ticket for either night).

Reviews

"the beauty of the images – sea coalers gleaning on the beach, mucky kiddies sliding joyfully down a hill of coal in a game of cowboys and indians – and the slowly building majesty of the music merged together towards a mighty climax."
Phil Johnson, The Independent on Sunday (read full article)

"The climax came with a pulse-quickening sequence of charging police horses in which the tactics employed to contain striking miners in 1984 appeared positively medieval."
Alfred Hickling, The Guardian (read full article)

A new commission for BRASS: Durham International Festival 2010
Produced by Forma
This project has been enabled by Northern Film + Media and the UK Film Council's Digital Film Archive Fund supported by the National Lottery.
These performances of The Miners’ Hymns form part of the 75th anniversary celebrations of the BFI National Archive.
Durham Cathedral by kind permission of the Chapter of Durham