Creative Folkestone announce festival celebrating Derek Jarman

Autumn Reads is a new four-day festival inspired by the diaries of Derek Jarman, Modern Nature

This November, Creative Folkestone are delighted to present a brand-new festival for these strange times. Autumn Reads will be a four-day celebration of artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman’s diary collection; Modern Nature.

From Thursday 19th to Sunday 22nd November Creative Folkestone will host a series of socially distanced, online events and activities that explore the themes of Jarman’s diaries.

The new festival has been inspired by the writings of Derek Jarman; Modern Nature is a collection of diary entries made by Jarman after moving to Prospect Cottage in Dungeness following being diagnosed as HIV Positive.

Facing a future of uncertainties, Jarman decided to make Dungeness his home and to grow a garden in the barren landscape. Modern Nature is about how he grew a garden from nothing whilst facing the end of his own life. The book has an enduring resonance and many parallels with today can be discovered throughout it.

In the build up to the festival, Creative Folkestone will be making a short film featuring extracts from Modern Nature.

For Folkestone Reads: Modern Nature, Creative Folkestone are looking for 21 people local to Folkestone, Hythe and the Romney Marsh to take part in the film project that will chart the 21 months spanned by the journal.

Participants will be invited to read extracts that encompass themes from gardening and plants to art, film, sexuality, pandemic, illness, and death. If you would like to take part contact louellaward@creativefolkestone.org.uk.

Autumn Reads: Modern Nature will take place this November instead of the usual creative Folkestone Book Festival. Due to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions and to help reduce the risk to infection, the organisers have decided to postpone this year’s popular event. The festival will now return in June 2021.

As with the Creative Folkestone Book Festival, Autumn Reads aims to bring people together over the love of books and the joy of reading but will focus on a singular book instead. A full programme for Autumn Reads will be announced in early October.

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