Private Project

A Town Like Diss

Part documentary, part daydream, this co-created film sees residents of a small town in Norfolk re-enact their memories, with other residents stepping in to perform their experiences.

A man remembers the elephants arriving by train, trunks and tails linked. A woman recalls a brief, glorious romance with a trapeze artist when the circus came to town. A fisherman is pulled into the Mere only to discover the strange creatures that live down there. A girl, once desperate to be chased by geese, finds herself at the wrong end of a feathered vendetta. A bemused café owner, faced by a customer convinced she can pay with a clubcard, kindly acquiesces. A Ukrainian refugee finds warmth and welcome in an unfamiliar town.

With every tale performed and reconstructed by fellow residents, in A Town Like Diss, memory is a communal act. Blending real recollection with fantastical re-creation, the film unfolds like a folk tale told by many voices at once. Rooted in the streets and stories of Diss, it captures the spirit of a place shaped as much by memory as by map.

The film was made possible through a commission from Essex Cultural Diversity Project supported by Arts Council England, in partnership with Diss Corn Hall, DesignerMakers21, and No.8 Market Place. The project was inspired by John Betjeman’s 1964 BBC film 'Something About Diss'.

  • Jonathan Ben-Shaul
    Director
  • Louis Norris
    Director
  • Jonathan Ben-Shaul
    Producer
  • Louis Norris
    Producer
  • Daisy Lees
    Producer
  • Jo Nancarrow
    Producer
  • Dennis Cross
    Key Cast
  • Jacqui Petrie
    Key Cast
  • Charlotte White
    Key Cast
  • Richard Lloyd
    Key Cast
  • Bilal Gönülşen
    Key Cast
  • Oksana Stoianovska
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    24 minutes 43 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 28, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    10,000 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Project Premiere, Diss Corn Hall
    Diss, Norfolk
    United Kingdom
    August 29, 2025
    World Premiere
  • OffBeat Folk Film Festival
    London
    United Kingdom
    May 12, 2026
    London Premiere
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Jonathan Ben-Shaul, Louis Norris

Moving House is a collaboration between two artists, Jonathan Ben-Shaul and Louis Norris. Together they create playful, community-focused investigations into people’s relationships with place, combining interviews, movement, puppetry and dramatic recreation. They have made five short documentaries, in different towns, about the ways people relate to the places they live.

In 2021 they made their first film in Kharkiv (Ukraine) - the award-winning ‘What Shall We Do With These Buildings?’ - about the legacy of Soviet architecture in the city, which was screened at festivals worldwide. In the wake of the full-scale Russian invasion, they spent much of 2022 organising fundraising screenings. In 2023 they were commissioned to make a community arts film in Basildon (UK), taking over a disused cinema in the town centre and mounting a multi-projector installation which screened over several days. In 2024 they made ‘Welcome to the Orchard of England’, a heritage film about the history and continued significance of apples in Leominster, Herefordshire. The film was commissioned by Leominster Priory with funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and has screened at festivals worldwide, including Borderlines (UK), Kastellorizo (Greece) and Castine (USA), where it won best documentary.

They've just finished 'A Town Like Diss', which was made as part of a community arts project supported by the Essex Cultural Diversity Project, in partnership with three key cultural organisations in the town: Diss Corn Hall, DesignerMakers21 and No.8 Marketplace.

They're currently in post-production on their fifth project, a documentary about the UK’s largest manufacturer of concrete garden ornaments, situated on the Isle of Sheppey.

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