🎬
📍 Across Northern England | iCASP, WaterLANDS and Great North Bog Partners
A Bog Film Festival is being held across the north of England to encourage people to discover why peatlands matter and learn about the crucial work being undertaken to restore them. Three exciting events are being held in the lead-up to International Bog Day on Sunday, 27 July. Each includes film screenings about our enigmatic peatlands and their many connections to human and planetary wellbeing.
About the Festival
The BogFilmFest is hosted by WaterLANDS UK (water@leeds, University of Leeds) in partnership with Great North Bog Partners.
The Great North Bog is an ambitious, large-scale peatland restoration initiative being developed by the North Pennines National Landscape team, the Yorkshire Peat Partnership and the Moors for the Future Partnership, together with the Northumberland Peat Partnership, Cumbria Peat Partnership and Lancashire Peat Partnership.
WaterLANDS is a five-year EU Horizon 2020 Green Deal program funded with €23 million, focuses on large-scale wetland restoration across Europe. The University of Leeds is a key research partner, supporting communities involved in peatland restoration throughout the region and the UK. In the UK, the WaterLANDS team collaborates with the Great North Bog coalition to facilitate blanket bog restoration at scale across northern England, one of six action sites in Europe.
🎥 Upcoming BogFilmFest Events
📍 Thursday 10 July | 7:00–9:00 PM
Cumbria Wildlife Trust at Gosling Sike, CA3 0LD
The films will showcase restored Cumbrian bogs and highlight their significance. The event will feature film introductions and a Q&A.
📍 Thursday 15 July | 6:30–10:00 PM
Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds, LS6 1BL
Enjoy a cosy evening of peatland films, live music, and discussions with directors and artists. Four short films will be screened.
📍 Saturday 19 July | 10:00 AM – 3:30 PM
Moss Peteral Farm, Brampton, CA8 7HY
Great North Bog Day 2025
Join the Wilder Northumberland Team and the Northumberland Peatland Partnership who are hosting an event including peatland film screenings, bog-themed workshops, farm walks, peatland restoration sessions, lunch, and a sculpture unveiling.
✨ BogFilmFest Leeds: Celebrating bog brilliance.
Get ready for the enigmatic peatland landscapes in the cosy setting of the Hyde Park Book Club’s ‘Snug’ venue.
Whether you’re a film buff or just looking for a fun and intriguing evening out, don’t miss this opportunity to experience our peatlands like never before. After the films, there will be a conversation with some of the films’ creators on their art form, and the power and value of peatlands themselves in all our lives. Then, some lively boogie-woogie music and an open mic session.
BogFilmFest is being held by the WaterLANDS UK team based at the University of Leeds and our Great North Bog partners to help celebrate International Bog Day on Sunday, 27th July.
🎞️ Screenings Include:
In the remote Moor House Upper Teesdale National Nature Reserve, a group of six artists, an ecologist, and two filmmakers spent five days exploring the moorland and blanket bog landscape. Camping on the site of a former scientific field station, they collaborated on “Fieldworking,” a meditative film that interweaves footage and field recordings of their interactions with the environment.
The film captures their adaptations and shared experiences, documenting the meeting between artists and land. “Fieldworking” was created in collaboration with Chris Bate, Ludwig Berger, Sarah Bouttell, Luce Choules, Simone Kenyon, Fiona MacDonald (Feral Practice), Lee Patterson, and Meredith Root-Bernstein, and co-commissioned by Tyneside Cinema and MIMA for the ‘Fragile Earth: Seeds, Weeds, Plastic Crust’ exhibition with support from Arts Council England.
Centred on sphagnum moss, Translocations highlights the mutual aid and reciprocal exchange that exists between species in the restoration of a lowland peatbog. Featuring the voice of botanist and author Robin Wall Kimmerer, and a tactile soundtrack score, the film documents the human and more-than-human life, energies and actions that are transforming an intensively farmed and damaged terrestrial environment back into a flourishing wetland habitat.
The film is structured around volunteers moving (‘translocating’) gathered balls of sphagnum moss from replete to deplete areas of the bog, enabling a keystone species in peat formation and carbon sequestration to thrive and rejuvenate a vital part of the biosphere.
A captivating short film set in rural Ireland explores the intricate connections between people and peatlands. Through the perspectives of Bernie, Tommy, and Caitlin, the film delves into the past, present, and future of the bog, unravelling the tensions that exist within.
Beyond their role as a vital carbon store, peatlands offer an opportunity to combat the climate crisis and foster resilience. However, the restoration of these ancient ecosystems requires a deep understanding of our relationship with these lands. Join us on a journey that unveils the beauty and significance of peatlands in a changing world
There will be a BREAK between 8:10 PM and 8:30 PM – Grab a drink from the bar and return to the Snug
🎤 Conversation (8:30 PM – 9:30 PM):
With filmmakers Nick Jordan, Laura Harrington, Fiona MacDonald, and Josh Cohen
A panel discussion with film directors and artists exploring their filmmaking approach, the significance of peatlands, and the connection between these landscapes and our wellbeing.
🎵 Music (21:30 – 22:00):
Live Boggy-Woogie music and time for open mic numbers
