Education & Outreach
Education and outreach are central to the wider mission of Nidd Films. Through projects including Sweetheart: Angel of the Moor, The Valley: A Keeping, Dead Funny and Bog Boys, we explore how film, theatre and moving-image storytelling can connect landscape, history, memory and lived experience with contemporary audiences and communities.
Our work is rooted in place-based storytelling. We see landscape not simply as a backdrop, but as something living and remembered—shaped by the people, histories and stories connected to it.
By bringing together film, heritage and creative practice, we aim to create meaningful opportunities for curiosity, reflection, dialogue and learning across generations.
What We Explore
Nidd Films projects often emerge from real histories, regional landscapes and overlooked voices. Some are grounded in historical research and heritage places; others explore grief, humour, friendship, imagination and the ways people carry memory through time.
Our education and outreach work invites audiences and participants to explore themes including:
- belonging and identity
- remembrance and cultural memory
- folklore and oral tradition
- women’s voices in history
- landscape as archive
- the relationship between people and place
- the ways storytelling connects past and present
These themes can be explored through screenings, talks, discussions, exhibitions and practical creative activities.
​Talks, Workshops & Learning
Drawing on founder Mark Anthony’s 30 years of experience in teaching, drama and media education, Nidd Films works with freelance creative and education partners to develop and deliver talks, workshops and resources connected to filmmaking and place-based storytelling.
Activities can be adapted to suit different ages, interests and learning environments. Areas of practice include:
- filmmaking and visual storytelling
- observational cinema
- soundscape and environmental recording
- storytelling through landscape
- oral history and memory projects
- Theatre in Education
- heritage interpretation through film
- creative reflection and group discussion
Sessions are designed to encourage creativity, critical thinking and conversation while helping participants engage with history, environment and storytelling in practical and imaginative ways.
Curriculum Connections
Our projects connect with a range of educational subjects and creative disciplines, including:
- History
- English Literature
- Film and Media Studies
- Drama and Theatre Studies
- Heritage and Cultural Studies
- Geography and Environmental Humanities
- Creative Writing
- Documentary and Observational Filmmaking
Talks, resources and activities can be adapted for schools, colleges, universities and community learning settings.
Outreach & Partnerships
Nidd Films welcomes opportunities to work with:
- schools, colleges and universities
- museums, archives and heritage organisations
- community and arts groups
- rural and regional cultural organisations
- researchers, educators and independent creatives
Together, we can develop activities such as educational screenings, talks, workshops, exhibitions, community filmmaking, intergenerational storytelling and site-specific creative experiences.
Our long-term ambition is to create work that is not only viewed, but experienced—connecting audiences physically, intellectually and emotionally with the places, people and histories that shape our stories.
Projects & Learning Themes
Nidd Films develops film, theatre and moving-image projects that can open conversations about history, landscape, memory, identity and human connection.
Each project offers different possibilities for screenings, talks, workshops, creative activities and learning resources. These opportunities will evolve as the individual projects progress through development, production and exhibition.
The Valley: A Keeping
The Valley: A Keeping is a completed moving-image and research project exploring landscape, memory, presence and trace within Nidderdale.
Treating the valley as a lived environment shaped by time, weather, labour, ritual and remembrance, the project invites audiences to consider what the land remembers and how landscapes carry the traces of human lives.
Developed for gallery, museum, heritage and educational contexts, it can support discussion and creative work around observational filmmaking, environmental sound, visual poetry, local history and landscape as archive.
Dead Funny
Currently in development, Dead Funny is a short film blending dark comedy with magical realism.
Set within the landscapes of Nidderdale, it explores friendship, grief, memory and the enduring bonds that connect people. Its hopeful approach to companionship, resilience and belonging creates opportunities for sensitive discussion about loss, wellbeing and the role imagination and humour can play during difficult times.
The project can also support creative exploration of tone, character, visual storytelling and the ways filmmakers balance comedy with emotionally complex subjects.
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Sweetheart: Angel of the Moor
Sweetheart: Angel of the Moor is a historical drama inspired by the true story of Mary-Jane Skaife, whose death in the Yorkshire Dales in 1858 became one of the region’s largely forgotten tragedies.
Through a historically grounded and compassionate approach, the project explores agency, coercion, justice, silence, remembrance and women’s voices in history.
Its education and impact work invites participants to consider whose stories are preserved, how historical lives are represented and how film can help overlooked voices be heard again.
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Vanishing Fairies Poster Competition 2026
The Vanishing Fairies Poster Competition is the first education initiative connected to Sweetheart: Angel of the Moor.
Inspired by the folklore and atmosphere of Hartwith Moor, it invites young people to imagine and design their own visual response to the fairies of the landscape. The activity introduces themes of folklore, regional imagination, visual communication and storytelling through place.
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Bog Boys
Currently in development, Bog Boys is an original darkly comic short play set beneath the streets of Blackpool, where archaeology, folklore and mistaken history collide.
Developed for live performance with multimedia elements, the play explores what can happen when the past unexpectedly surfaces beneath our feet—and how people interpret history when evidence, imagination and personal belief become entangled.
Its themes create opportunities to explore archaeology, local history, folklore, comedy, performance and multimedia storytelling. It also encourages participants to question how history is discovered, interpreted and sometimes misunderstood.​​
Work with us
We welcome conversations with educators, heritage professionals and community organisations interested in developing a talk, workshop, screening or creative partnership.
Activities can be shaped around a particular project, subject, age group or place.
To discuss an education or outreach opportunity, contact
Mark Anthony at