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A film that beautifully captures the changes to a library through decolonising practice & movingly reflects the impact on the librarians.

Changes in Light was made by dance artist/scholar Anna Macdonald during her time as Practitioner in residence at Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS), the largest law library in Europe. It focuses on the library’s decolonising work moving Commonwealth law materials from basement spaces to more central parts of the library.

The images in the film, captured by Macdonald and videographer Marisa Zanotti, emerged from movement workshops with library staff which focused on the embodied experience of different parts of the library. During the workshops, staff were invited to think about their relationship to change and how a sense of movement, a sense of the possibility of change, might be created. Drawing on Macdonald’s background in screendance (an artform combining dance and film) Changes in Light explores the impact of the affective qualities of libraries on those who use them as a way of revealing the colonial complexities of law itself.

‘a striking and vital project. It manages to be both firmly grounded and ethereal all at once, which is remarkable.’
Julietta Singh (Professor of English and author of No Archive Will Restore You)

The panel discussion after the film screening is chaired by Esther Lesk-Carew (Portico Trustee / MMU) with Marilyn Clarke (IALS) and Anna Macdonald and critical friends to the library.