In the Hollow, On the Marsh

8mm & 16mm film developed in plant matter, transferred to HD Video

00:12:20

2026

In the Hollow, On the Marsh is a film shaped through relational and collaborative acts. Co-created with Rooted Community Food, an allotment organisation based in Eastbourne, the film was developed using plant matter destined for the compost heap and bladderwrack gathered from Holywell Beach.

Filmed across two sites - Rooted Community Food at Gorringe Allotments and Whitbread Hollow, the site of a former allotment scheme - the film traces the enduring legacy of Mary Ann Gilbert, a social reformer, agronomist and local landowner. In 1830, Gilbert began a series of experimental and pioneering cultivation initiatives on waste land near Beachy Head, at Whitbread Hollow. At a time when common land was increasingly being enclosed, she championed allotments as an alternative to Poor Law relief, seeking to restore autonomy and independence to local families through access to land and the means to cultivate it.

Composed of 8mm and 16mm footage shot during a series of walks and workshops with Rooted folk and friends throughout the summer of 2026, the film brings together moving images and audio recordings of conversations around collective action, shared resources and knowledge, community and growing. Through these encounters, In the Hollow, On the Marsh explores the relationships between land, cultivation and collective action, attending to the histories and possibilities held within acts of growing together.

Commissioned by Devonshire Collective 

Funded by National Lottery Heritage Funding