In connection with last weekend's Notting Hill Carnival, and to celebrate our partnership with the NTS Carnival Soundsystem, we have invited some of our favourite visual artists of the moment to share their visions of the world's second biggest street festival. In this exclusive new short, talented young filmmaker Mollie Mills follows some of Carnival's most outrageous dancers back to their home turf.
Carnival is my yearly reassurance that London is my favourite place in the world. Although some have their apprehension about Carnival, I find it very unifying; the North, South, East and West divide briefly disappears and we all bustle together to eat, drink, dance and wear colourful clothes. I'm always so excited to see the incredible (and often unsigned) dancers who dig out the loudest costumes, forget about their day jobs and lose themselves amidst the parade.
I was intrigued to see where these dancers go to party when they're not at Carnival. I met up with Shy and Saskia, both Jamaican law graduates now living in Homerton, who took me out to a local pre-carnival dancehall party for a preview of what was to come and to show me what they call "the real dance". Shy speaks about how the music gives her a sense of freedom and that there's more to Dancehall and Soca dance's than meets the eye.
Music by Arae.
See more of Mollie's work here, and follow her on Instagram here.
