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Accepted Film:
![[has image]](https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/uploads/resized/asa2025/paper/F01-88477-ou5jp1.jpeg_200xauto.jpg "Image uploaded")
Jimmy's Archive
Film short abstract:
Jimmy is a long-term resident of a social housing estate undergoing redevelopment. While struggling to come to terms with what 'regeneration' means for him, he finds joy in sharing his collections, telling stories of class, place and "still waiting for that future".
Film long abstract:
"50 years ago today they landed on the moon... and I'm still waiting for that future".
Jimmy's Archive is a collaborative short film by anthropologist Robert Deakin and James ('Jimmy') Watters – a lifelong resident of Poplar, a working-class neighbourhood in the former docklands of east London. Rebuilt according to a modernist masterplan after being heavily bombed during the 2nd World War, today Poplar is undergoing another round of intensive redevelopment in the form of ‘urban regeneration’ which will see formerly public housing replaced with mostly private housing for market sale.
Against this backdrop, Jimmy delves into a cupboard of carefully kept artefacts to tell stories of class, place, music and (still) waiting for the future. Recently having retired after 30 years as a London Black Cab driver, Jimmy now spends much of his time at home. But while struggling to come to terms with what 'regeneration' means for him, he finds joy in sharing his collections.
Jimmy's Archive provides an intimate portrait of home, place and ageing in a rapidly changing urban landscape. It also contributes to thinking and practice around collaborative and multi-modal anthropology. While the editing for the film was done by Robert - interspersed by screening and feedback sessions - the ‘on set’ direction was a collaboration, with Jimmy improvising ‘on stage’ and Robert filming with minimal intervention. As Jimmy delves into his collection the narrative unfolds through a combination of human agency and serendipity.
![[image]](https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/uploads/resized/asa2025/paper/F01-88477-ou5jp1.jpeg_1100xauto.jpg "uploaded image")
| Title (original): | Jimmy's Archive |
| Duration (minutes): | 25 |
| Country(ies) of filming: | UK |
| Country of production: | UK |
| Language(s): | English |
| Year of Production: | 2022 |
| Director(s): | Robert Deakin and James Watters |
| Director(s)' short bio-filmography: | Robert Deakin is a Research Associate in Sociology at Loughborough University. He holds a PhD in Anthropology (Goldsmiths, University of London), MA degrees in Social Anthropology (SOAS and the University of California, Davis) and a BA in Human Sciences (University of Oxford). His research explores people’s experiences and responses to urban and environmental change in contexts of structural inequality. Within this, he pursues collaborative research working across multiple media. Robert’s PhD examined the entanglements of heritage and urban regeneration in Poplar, east London. Part of this involved an ethnographic exploration of a project to re-establish a pub on a social housing estate undergoing redevelopment as well as co-devising a collaborative film-project alongside a local resident. Attending to several such place-specific regeneration projects through a concept of ‘affective infrastructure’, Robert explored the circumscribed forms of political agency which take shape in this context, with particular attention to intersecting inequalities of race and class. His current research examines contemporary anxieties around the issue of pub closures in the UK, and the impacts pub closure has on people and communities. James Watters is a largely self-educated collector of artefacts, former London Black Cab driver and life-long resident of Poplar, east London. |
| Previous screenings: | EASA 2022 |
| Website or link for other info: | https://filmfreeway.com/JimmysArchive |
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