Film London and BBC Radio 4 are to collaborate on a new project, The City Speaks.

Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network has been awarded £98,838 through Arts Council England’s Grants for the scheme.
 
The project will bring together twelve of the capital’s artist film-makers and writers to create a series of films for radio, which will form the centrepiece of a BBC Radio 4 season celebrating London as a great cosmopolitan city.

Working with a narrative framework produced by writer Peter Ackroyd, artist film-maker and writer teams are collaborating with composer David Pickvance, BBC sound designers and Film London to create six 14-minute audiovisual productions. The individual works will then be combined to form two 45 minute Radio 4 afternoon plays. 

The works will be premiered in February 2008 as a feature-length presentation at the BFI London IMAX Cinema. This will be followed by two BBC Radio 4 broadcasts, run simultaneously with a looped interactive TV programme, where listeners will be able to ’press the red button’ to access the full audio visual experience.

The commissioned artist /writer pairings include: William Raban and Alison Joseph; Alnoor Dewshi and Lin Coghlan; Sam Brady and Nick Warburton, Joe King & Rosie Pedlow and Mike Walker; Inge 'Campbell' Blackman and Mark Norfolk; Esther Johnson and Mehrdad Seyf.

Maggie Ellis, Head of Production at Film London said:
"Film London is delighted to be involved in this unique project, in partnership with the BBC, which pushes the boundaries of collaborative practice and underlines the importance of storytelling within the creative process. The City Speaks demonstrates a growing interest in artists’ film-making and combined with broadcast and exhibition opportunities will provide innovative ways of reaching new audiences."

Jeremy Howe, Commissioning Editor for BBC Radio 4 said:
"At Radio 4 we're delighted to be involved in this exciting and innovative project. We've started workshops with writers and film-makers and the ideas that have already been generated are extremely creative and compelling. We hope and believe that the two 45 minute dramas which will be played on Radio 4 as a result of this initiative will be a treat for our audience whilst at the same time offering them the opportunity to see the dramas visualised on screen by pressing the red button."