Amy Feneck

Government Workers
2010
Single channel film
Format: 16mm converted to DVCAM
Length: 6 mins 45 sec

Made in response to a year- long residency in a state Secondary School in Hackney, the film considers the lack of distance between the game of politics and the act of learning. Observing this relationship in its current setting led to research surrounding the alliance between educational values and political idealism developed in the post-war era, when the school was built.

Informed by Government Information films, and amateur 16mm footage housed in the local Hackney Archives, showing social housing, schools and civic centres being re-built after the war, the film’s use of 16mm and its employment of an observational documentary approach, attempt to combine a post-war aesthetic and idealism with the everyday reality of the school.

The film was made whilst in residence at Hackney Free and Parochial Secondary School, as part of The School Looks Around project co-commissioned by the Whitechapel Gallery and General Public Agency. The work was shown in the exhibition The School Looks Around at the Whitechapel Gallery in 2010.

http://www.generalpublicagency.com/the_school_looks_around.html
http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/education/schools/artists-in-residence/previous-residencies/2009-10-amy-feneck