After Ending / Na het einde

Daisy Smith received a grant for the development of After Ending / Na het einde, a film that looks at Wharram Percy, a deserted medieval village in England that became the site of a decades-long, volunteer-led archaeological dig. Layering both English and Dutch testimonies, the project reflects on resonances between the dig’s findings and its internal culture - both driven by a sense of radicalism. Between 1950 and 1990 Wharram Percy operated as a temporary cross-cultural institution that still shapes understandings of European working-class history. Through layered voices, landscape, and archival material, After Ending / Na het einde will explore redress, resistance, and the politics of research, approaching the site as both a ruin and a rehearsal.

Daisy works from a personal archive in which family members, friends, previous workplaces and living situations are situated within a backdrop of wider social dramas. The material of her practice in many ways corresponds to the various working and living conditions she finds herself in. She was a 2022-2023 resident of De Ateliers, Amsterdam. Recently her work has been shown at EXiS Film Festival, Galerie Martin van Zomeren, B3 Biennial of the Moving Image, Pulsie, Aesthetica Film Festival and Go Short Festival. Her work toured the UK with Videoclub and FILM London’s Selected programme in 2019 and 2023, and she is a co-founder of Mascara Film Club and Watchlist.