Rayna Nadeem is an artist and filmmaker working in the public realm. She specialises in film and arts projects within social-engagement, documentary, and site-specific practice.
Rayna’s work often involves people and places and has a participatory element, whereby the public becomes integral to the process, whether through the re-telling of stories, sharing of memories or the inclusion of their images. Rayna works in a range of digital media from video, photography, audio and installations to print based work and hand crafted collage. Her work is exhibited through public art projects, exhibitions, film festivals and screenings.
Rayna collaborates with a range of organisations as an educator and facilitates the making of films and art projects with young people and community groups. She has worked with Creative Partnerships (A New Direction), BOOM Nation, The Tate, Rosetta Art School, Newham NDP and Mouth That Roars.
She co-founded the annual Clerkenwell Film & Video Festival and curated We Are East, a series of east London-themed film screenings. She also programmes The Gate Screens and Leytonstone Pop-Up Cinema in east London.
She has also worked as a freelance editor for the international charities Global Witness and Save The Children editing films from Liberia, South Sudan, Palestine, Pakistan and Colombia, and her work has featured in The Guardian online newspaper:
South Sudan: Birth of a Nation
Pakistan Floods: Gulnaz’s Story
Rayna has a BA hons degree in Fine Art and an MA Art in Architecture
Contact: rayna@dekkoproductions.com
Other Projects include…
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Little Shops A project commission working with local, independent shop-keepers and small businesses in Maryland, Forest Gate, and Manor Park celebrating stories, locality and entrepreneurialism in Newham. |
| Funded by LB Newham |
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Music for Masterplanning: Regeneration is our Salvation. Situated on one of the largest re-development and re-generational projects in Newham, a young man decides to preach his strong views and spread his message to an unsuspecting audience. Recorded on location as a live performance. We hear a preacher’s strange and (often humorous) vision of the ‘new promised land’, until the realisation that what he is preaching is a false prophecy |
| Recorded for Music for Masterplanning | |
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It’s a Newham Thing An audio and photographic project that explores and celebrates locality. 25 revealing interviews recorded on location with Newham residents, sharing personal stories about their chosen place, and plotting an alternative map of Newham. Take a ride over the lesser-known contours of this east London borough’s social geography, stopping off at a pub with a no booze policy, a pre-war bath-house, and a jazz club in a railway arch. Witness urban food-growing on an estate, hang out with the Daleks from Dr Who, and listen to a Sri Lankan Elvis-impersonator. |
| Commissioned by Newham New Deal Partnership (NDP), Funded by an Olympic Lottery Transformers grant, ELBA, LB of Newham & Arts Council of England. | |
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Your Place or Mine A web-based, audio-visual, social-engagement project in Forest Gate E7, Newham. 10 participants from Forest Gate are encouraged to look again and re-engage with their immediate environment, and describe their relationship with their own special places. By exploring and re-examining what we usually take for granted, this project helps us gain a new appreciation of our own localities. |
| Funded by Go For it Grants, LB of Newham | |
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DeadLife Artist filmmaker in residence. This contemplative film offers a fascinating insight into the workings of the City of London Cemetery and Crematorium, the largest in the UK. While critiquing our age’s ghoulish perceptions of graveyards, DeadLife provides a poignant existential meditation on nature, beauty, life and death. |
| Commissioned by The City of London Cemetery and Crematorium | |
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The Fellowship Arts Project An Inter-generational photography and moving image project with selected schools and a residential care home in Waltham Forest in conjunction with the William Morris Gallery. Screened at the BBC big screen in east London. |
| Commissioned by LB Waltham Forest Arts | |
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1 Square Mile An international global project which inspires local communities to explore the cultural and ecological diversity of their cities and neighbourhoods through artistic engagement. |
| Commissioned by Visiting Arts. Funded by the British Council | |
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Underneath The Arches A film produced as a result of a two-month residency at Bushey Arches – a major transport interchange in Watford and a historical landmark. In this social-engagement film, Rayna creatively collaborated with local people to find out their views on heritage and environmental issues. |
| Artist-in-residence at the Watford Museum, commissioned by Green Heart Partnerships, LANS & Watford Council | |
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Tales To Tell A site-specific film project about the colourful historical characters that once frequented London’s Docklands area, many of whom arrived with the ships and cargo from the colonies. An homage to the characters whose lives are re-created and re-told by the present-day Docklands community. |
| Site-specific public art commissioned by River Cultures Festival, screened at Museum of Docklands. Funded by the Arts Council of England | |
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Community Launderette An outdoor installation comprising of 300 items of clothing hanging on a 50-metre washing line drying over West India Quayside, London Docklands. |
| Site-specific public art commissioned by River Cultures Festival. Funded by the Arts Council of England | |
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Walk Glyndon A public art film commission in Plumstead. Including photography and film workshops in the area to highlight a new public walkway. Outdoor screening on Plumstead Common. SE London |
| Site-specific public art film commissioned by Independent Photography, LB of Greenwich | |
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Neighbourhood Watching A public art film commission in Bethnal Green. 10 x 1 min films on the residents within Warner Place Square. Screened outdoors on a large screen. |
| Site-specific public art film commissioned by Neighbourhood Watching | |
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Diary of a Kings Cross Rose Hi 8 video and Stills inspired by living in an inner city Kings Cross in the 1990’s. |
| http://www.airstudio.org/reflections/publications/Kings-Cross-Field-Map/ | |
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Talkback 20/20 Video Installation for Kali Theatre Company in London’s Soho Theatre. Inspired by the Asian women new playwrights workshop. |
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Supergrass Residency and digital film commission made at Scrattons Farm Estate, East London, working in conjunction with the resident’s committee and local government officers. |
| Commissioned by A13 Artscape Public Art project, LB Barking & Dagenham | |
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Warm Glow Indoor window Installation/ Temporary beeswax squares placed around a building which let off an aroma when the sun shone through. |
| At Greengate House/Old YMCA building, Plaistow. East London. | |
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Activated Wall Outdoor Installation / temporary public art project. 500 clear perspex windmills attached to a 25m rendered pub wall in N London. |
| Funded by Ray Finnis Trust. UEL. MPM Engineering. Culpepper Community Garden. Charles Wells Brewery |
Education/Partnership projects include…
Newham Woodcraft Film Project
Filmmaking facilitator on the Newham Woodcraft Project with children and young people. Making 3 films with the Pioneers, Elfins and Venturers. Funded by Awards for All Lottery Grant.
Young Newham Artists
Tutor on ABC Level 2 & 3 Certificate in Art, Design and Creative Studies. Teaching visual arts, photography, Adobe Photoshop and Premiere. London Borough of Newham.
It’s a Newham Thing
Outreach community workshops within the Royal Docks area creating a large travelling map of south Newham. Funded by Royal Docks Trust
Healthy Living
Creative Digital Photography and IT workshops with the over 55’s group at Poplar HARCA on the theme of health, well-being and environment. London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
Finishing and Starting
A three year documentary film project at William C Harvey special needs school in north London. Creative Partnerships, A New Direction.
Creative Roleplay
Surrey Square Infants School, Southwark A creative film project looking at nature, plants, props and creative role play. A New Direction
BOOM!
Nationwide film-making touring project for young people. Sponsored by MTV, V and Clubs for Young People.
Our Olympics
Kingsmead Primary School, Hackney. Documentary film project looking at the impact of the Olympics with Year 6 pupils. Funded by CP East
My London, My Home, My School
St.Margaret Clitheroe Primary documentary film project about recyling, reducing & reusing. Funded by Creative Partnerships London West.
We Wear Jeans
Documentary heritage film project with young women in Camden.
Tamil Voices
Creative documentary film project at Villiers High School, Southall, funded by Creative Partnership West. Winner of the Diana Anti-Bullying Award.
All About Us (B&D Young People’s Film Festival)
Film-making residency tutor at Barking & Dagenham Youth Training services.
The Hood
Documentary film at Toffee Park Youth Centre, London EC1. A Blowing Up production, funded by Awards for All.
Reflective Conversations
Professional development project with Teachers and Artists atRushcroft School, Walthamstow. Creative Partnerships London North