Spike Island presented Fugitives in the Archive, a newly commissioned short film by Heather Marks.

March 14, 1769. Ran away on Wednesday Night last, from his Master Patrick Burk, Esq; A Young Negro Man, called Jeremiah.

Fugitives in the Archive picks up Jeremiah’s trail in a meditation on the hundreds of young people of African and Asian descent who ran away from enslavement in Britain in the 17^th to early 19^th century; who for many the only trace left in archives are the advertisements announcing their escape published by the men and women who sought to capture them. In this assemblage of movement, found footage, and historical record, Fugitives in the Archive invites you into a dreamspace to meditate on the lives of the undocumented freedom-seekers both then and now, and to consider ‘fugitivity’ as a technology through which to disturb the archive, asking what can exist beyond its limits.

Throughout the 17th and 18th century, hundreds of newspaper advertisements announced the elopement of enslaved servants in Britain with rewards for their capture. Marks’ short film picks up the trail of one such freedom-seeker, a young man called Jeremiah Rowland, who escaped in 1769. Weaving together movement, interviews and critical fabulation, Fugitives in the Archive explores notions of fugitivity and the challenges of reconstructing lesser-known histories when archives provide limited information.

Please note, this film contains strong language, racial slurs, and images that some may find shocking or distressing.

HEATHER MARKS

Heather Marks is a British Nigerian-Scottish artist and writer interested in stories of the historic black presence in Britain, and ripples of the past that can be felt in our present. This is her first film.

Heather is also a freelance creative producer, engagement lead, and editor whose authors have since gone on to win and be shortlisted for prizes such as the CWA Dagger and National Poetry Prize. She has been invited to speak at Hay Festival, Southbank Centre, Kiraathane, and many other cultural organisations in the UK and abroad.

She is an alumna of the world-first Masters in Black British Literature from Goldsmiths, University of London and her novel ‘The Disobedients’ won the 2018 Golden Egg Award for unpublished manuscripts.