Private Project

Attention is the Beginning of Devotion

A story for everyone about strengthening their relationship with the natural world. The narrative, conveyed through an impressionistic collage of experimental film, original music, poetry, dance and spoken word delivers a powerful environmental message about the importance of connecting with nature through a sensory and immersive experience.
The film was shot entirely on location at the Lewes Railway Land nature reserve in East Sussex and is firmly rooted in the local community. First-time film-maker, visual artist Ruthie Martin is the current artist in residence at the nature reserve and the film draws extensively on her experiences and impressions of working within the environment. The film includes collaborative contributions from a wide range of other local artists based in the community.

  • Richard Martin
    Director
  • Ruthie Martin
    Director
  • Richard Martin
    Writer
  • Ruthie Martin
    Writer
  • Ruth Lawrence
    Writer
  • Richard Martin
    Producer
  • Ruthie Martin
    Producer
  • Jamie Wigley
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    22 minutes 34 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    November 30, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    500 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:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - Richard Martin, Ruthie Martin

British painter and mixed media artist Ruthie Martin is the Artist-in-Residence at the Railway Land Wildlife trust, Lewes, East Sussex. After studying Abstraction in Painting at London's prestigious Central Saint Martins from September 2017 to June 2018, she graduated in 2021 with a First Class BA degree in Fine Art from the University of East London. In the same year, she was awarded the Curriculum Art Prize from Kensington and Chelsea College, London.

Her work is inspired both by the landscape of the South Downs National Park and by considerations of the shifting relationships between human and more-than-human natural worlds. Her mainly abstract paintings spring from close observation of the forms, trails and textures of the local environment, and embodying her physical experience of temperature, sound and movement. Her work is held in private collections and has been exhibited in London, Cambridge, Lewes and Brighton.

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Director Statement

As a visual artist I am interested in the idea of impermanence. While my work springs from forms and textures which I see in front of me, I like to bury these elements in a pictorial space which lacks definition. I often use paint to create a feeling of light coming and going over structures and surfaces and of looking through spaces to another time, conveying a sense of change through history. Working with moving imagery is new for me and I am inspired by its transience and the opportunity it offers for layering different viewpoints and experiences. This film is a moving collage, in part a kind of improvisation, something which can’t be entirely pinned down. Like water, which is constantly on the move, and shifting from one state to another. From rain, to flood, to chalk stream, to river… Everything is changing.
As Artist-in-Residence at Lewes Railway Land Wildlife Trust, I have immersed myself for a year and more, in the ecology and the history of this edge land space. I have experienced first-hand the truth of Mary Oliver’s words: Attention is the Beginning of Devotion. When it is possible to let go of all other distractions and give oneself up to noticing one’s natural surroundings in a very deliberate way, the result is to feel more stable in an increasingly uncertain world. More calm, more energetic, more positive. This is evidence of our need to stay strongly connected to the more-than-human world and to wake up to the urgency of protecting the environment which supports us all.
This project is most importantly a collaboration between a group of very generous and accomplished artists. As directors, Richard and I were particularly fortunate to have every scene brought to life by talented actor Jamie Wigley and the stirring, enlivening poems of writer Ruth Lawrence. We were blown away by the darkly ambient music of shimmerglisten and delighted to have been able to include this in our soundtrack. The starting point for the film was of course the Lewes Railway Land itself, and we are incredibly grateful for the support of CEO Helen Meade and the opportunity given us to be able to use this magical space as both the background to and the subject of our film.