GCP was commissioned by Tipping Point UK to produce and direct a film documenting a project bringing together environmental campaigners from across North East England with a group of farmers from Upper Teesdale in the North Pennines. Over the course of a year the group met on farms in Teesdale to have conversations about the work and campaigns they’re involved in, and consider the impacts of their actions in the landscapes and communities that they live in.
The aim of the project was to create a space for dialogue between two groups of people who are not often in conversation with each other, both of whom sometimes feel misrepresented in the media. It offered a place for farmers and campaigners to come together and explore each other’s areas of work and interest.
Leaving It Better reflects the common ground the group found through listening to each other and the positive actions they are taking to care for the world around them. The film has screened extensively in community screenings in the northeast.
PODCAST by Jenny Dinwoodie
A podcast was produced alongside the Leaving It Better documentary. The podcast offers insights, personal reflections, and creative responses inspired by the conversations and connections formed during the project’s duration. Listen below.
ZINE by Sophie Buxton
The Leaving It Better zine traces the processes that brought these people together from Sophie’s perspective as a participant and as an artist. They present an emerging montage of landscapes that is shaped through these encounters – with both the people and the North Pennines landscape – and where their ideas and work overlap, layer up, and meet.
Zine: https://tippingpointuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/LEAVING-IT-BETTER-ZINE.pdf
