Aleya Markham is a third year BA (Hons) Filmmaking student. As part of her final year, she has created the interactive documentary Belongings, which focuses on the lives and stories of refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and immigrants. She has had her work displayed in both the Leeds School of Arts building and Leeds City Museum. 

In this blog, she talks through what the exhibition was all about and what she plans to do after graduating.

Course: BA (Hons) Filmmaking

Tell us a little bit about your exhibition?

Audiences are invited to come physically into the exhibition, designed to look like a bedroom set, and search for objects which will represent an individual's life experiences. It is my final year project, which I pitched for based on the work I did in my second year I-Doc (interactive documentary) module. This module was by far my favourite on the course as I come at filmmaking from an artistic perspective - so being able to express stories in visually new and interesting ways really spoke to me. 

Previously to this module, I didn’t know what I wanted to do in filmmaking. However, this module absolutely changed that for me. I think it's extremely important as filmmakers to engage audiences in different ways as desensitisation to information is a huge issue when we have access to so much content everyday through our screens. I-Doc bridges this gap.

What are you exhibiting and how does it relate to your course?

The exhibition features experiences from a range of people who we had the absolute privilege of meeting and even anonymous submissions from people online. I'm so grateful to all of them for trusting us with their stories. For the projector show, I decided to hand draw furniture and objects which represent the stories being told on the screen.

I wanted it to feel like the bedroom set could belong to anyone and is changing constantly to reflect each individual person. The artwork hung on the walls was the result from an art day event we put on at a monthly social for Leeds Angels of Freedom, where we painted with asylum seekers and offered to display the artwork created during our exhibition. 

Finally, I designed the objects around the room to have people's stories attached in unique ways. For example, one of the objects which is extremely impactful is the bleach bottle which refers to Sheila's story, a commentary on her daughter who wanted to bleach her skin.

How did it feel having your work displayed?

The exhibition was initially in the LSA building, and the reception was amazing. One person mentioned how they were considering doing I-Doc for their 3rd year project after seeing it and even one of the contributors themselves has come and told us how much she loves it. I’m glad that I’ve been able to use our resources at the university and our final project to provide a space for communities to tell their experiences in ways which they want to and have control over. 

The exhibition then moved to Leeds City Museum. One of the most meaningful parts of exhibiting here was knowing that the contributors of the project were able to see their voices and stories being shared in such a prominent, public space where thousands of people came through and heard them. This was especially important for those who had to remain anonymous for safety reasons but still wanted their experiences to seen. It was great that they could visit the exhibition and see their contributions represented in a way that protected their identities. 

I want to thank Leeds City Museum for allowing us to display the project at their museum, their team is lovely (especially Sapphia) and I appreciate all of their help with the set up!

What advice would you give to someone wishing to study Filmmaking at Leeds Beckett?

My advice to someone wishing to study filmmaking is to surround yourself with people who are as passionate as you are. One thing I have learnt is that not everyone will be willing to put in the same level of effort into a project, but the truth is, a project succeeds because of the people who do care. 

I’ve noticed that directing your effort towards others who are equally passionate makes all the difference. So make sure to tell stories which are important to you, ones which you genuinely care about, find those who you can rely on to build each other up and push one another to create work that you’re proud of.

What’s next for you after graduating?

After graduating, I plan to continue developing interactive documentaries and creating art that serves as a form of activism. I’m really passionate about documentary work and collaborating with charities and community organisations to tell important stories in new ways. I’ll also be continuing my work in protest photography and graphic design, with the goal of building a career in this field and contributing my skills to projects that drive public awareness.

You can find out more about Aleya's work through her website.