Counterstate Films

03/02/2024

01/12/2023

Great to be back working with Hot Poets on their films for Resilience Frontiers. Imagining a better future and how we get there.

This is the first one, released on the first day of COP28 with more over the next week.

21/06/2022

The screening of 'Dear Home Office' is tomorrow at the Watershed in Bristol. We helped produce this short documentary alongside many great local organisations working with refugees and asylum seekers.

Counterstate films helped with production, filming, graphics and the sound mix to help this timely film become realised.

Dear Home Office shines a light on the UK asylum system through the lived experience of recent asylum seekers and refugees.

21/06/2022

Taking a break from making lots of union films (for ACORN) to express full solidarity with the RMT union as they start their strike today.

12/11/2021

The finale of HOTPOETS is here - Matt Harvey with his poem 'Praise the Whale' with some astounding science about the environmental value of whale poo.

And with this 12th poem, the hotpoets films have all been released. It's been a great project to work on - producing, shooting and editing the 12 films across a range of poetic styles. We filmed in 6 locations across the South West and London to bring the sense of different natural environments and habitats to the films - heathland, peatland, coastal, woods, parks, steep hills and more. Really happy to see the films released and the great response the poems have had across social media - in both poetry worlds, science worlds and plenty more.

12/11/2021

Hotpoets day 11! The Repeat Beat Poet with 'A Rhyming Guide To Climate Litigation', great to learn about Lawfare and how we can use it to fight for the climate.

10/11/2021

HOT POETS day 10! A Beautiful piece by Toni Giselle Stuart that feels like an epic of the sea - about the ocean biology, slavery and colonisation, the history of the bay, the rubbish we chuck in it, the clean up by citizen scientists.

Edited by us, but as Toni is based in South Africa we worked with South African film maker Dylan Valley to capture this piece in a beautiful location.

10/11/2021

It's an 'Extreme Weather Report' for todays HOT POETS, great collaboration between Elvis McGonagall and the Met Office about the future of extreme weather.

08/11/2021

HOT POETS day 8! Liv Torc with her great poem about the Somerset Levels. Lovely to understand more about the local environment and history through poetry.

07/11/2021

Day 7 of the HOTPOETS films we shot - Yomi Ṣode's great piece 'Chaos in the Sky and on Land'. Great working with Yomi to film this a few weeks ago at magic hour - great lighting, great poem.

06/11/2021

We're halfway through the 12 films now. Day 6 today with this physical, tangible, tactile poem by Vanessa Kisuule on peatlands!

06/11/2021

Hotpoets day 5! A great piece by Jonny Fluffypunk about children, nature and education.

05/11/2021

Hotpoets day 4 - couldn't share this yesterday so today there's two poems! And luckily they're two of our favourites... Here's Joelle Taylor's poem on wildfires. Love this performance and poem.

03/11/2021

Hot Poets day 3! Francesca Beard with her poem 'Geology Rocks' written with the British Geological Survey. Film by us!

02/11/2021

HOT POETS day 2! A different angle on the climate crisis from yesterday. One of the great things about working on this project is the varying styles, tones and the way they tackle each different subject is really great.