The film version of Taking a Holiday is now complete and is available to book.

Taking a Holiday tells the amazing story of the secret beneath a Bristol bike shop. It is a story of struggle in wartime – full of intrigue, escapes, comradeship…and bikes. What does it mean to be a refugee and on the run in your own country? Who will give you a bed for the night, a job… or a means of escape?

The film combines puppetry, shadow theatre, and documentary material to weave a cinematic tale based on the true stories of ordinary Bristol people in 1914/17, and the hidden history of the resistance to the war machine. The visual imagery is backed by wonderful music provided Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith, Rosie Sleightholme and Anna Riggs.

If you are interested in screening the film at your event, school or group, please get in touch at otherstorypuppetry@ymail.com.

Thanks to West of England Combined Authority for supporting Otherstory artist Emma Byron with a Creative Freelancers grant to work on this – and to create a linked workshop.  And thanks to Curious School of Puppetry and Arts Council England for funding a residency at Puppet Place to do some of the filming.

Background reading

Bristol Radical History Group have published our pamphlet Steps Against War, which brings together all the research we did for the puppet history walk of the same name, and also covers the events Taking a Holiday is based on.  Go to BRH publications to order a copy.