The first three podcasts from the Audio Lab creator programme have launched on BBC Sounds, with the next set following in August.
Audio Lab provides a space for the next generation of podcasters and opens up the industry to a wider range of people by giving new audio creatives the opportunity to turn their ideas into a series for BBC Sounds.
The Film We Can’t See imagines hidden queer connections between filmmakers over a century ago, treasured artefacts inside Britain’s celebrated museums speak for the first time in The Museum Of Bad Vibes and Blossom Trees And Burnt-Out Cars unearths the radical ramblers and activist gardeners opening up nature to everyone.
Khaliq Meer, Audio Lab Commissioning Executive says: “We only announced our first creators in January, so to be at the point we can share the first three titles of the Summer is very exciting. The imagination, creativity and curiosity on display by Hanna, Talia and Adam is even more impressive when I reflect on how they’ve led their ambitious projects whilst learning new skills and developing their ideas at the same time.
“Amplifying the next-generation podcasters with new ideas; untold stories and fresh perspectives is exactly what Audio Lab set out to do when we launched this time last year. Together with the creators, we’ve achieved that in a little over six months. They have been a joy to work with and I genuinely can’t wait to see what they do next!”
The Film We Can’t See by Adam Zmith
It’s 1930. Imagine a chance meeting between a pioneering film director from Russia, a bisexual Hollywood actress and a German sexologist fleeing the Nazis. Imagine if they planned to make a film that would experiment with form, technology, bodies and politics, at a moment when freedom and fascism were clashing. Their film might have changed the world.
This film was never planned or made, but The Film We Can’t See uses documentary and imagination to dream it up anyway.
A chance encounter leads journalist and producer Adam Zmith to some ancient records from the early days of cinema labelled with the name Sergei Eisenstein, who pioneered filmmaking in the Soviet Union in the 1920s. Together with actor Anton Blake Horowitz and researcher So Mayer, their investigation brings them to a team of cinema pioneers who planned to defy censorship of anti-Nazi films and queer bodies. Inspired by rediscovered sound tests, passed through generations of filmmakers, Adam, Anton and So piece together the film that never was, conjuring a lost, censored, alternative history.
The Film We Can’t See is a journey through time and sound, into our bodies and our futures and a genre-bending adventure where documentary meets imagination. With rich sound design and hypnotic jazz by legendary musician Courtney Pine, it is an immersive podcast series that enthrals as much as it inspires.
Adam Zmith said: “I’m so excited to finally share this adventurous podcast series! I’m obsessed with what-might-have-been, especially featuring radical and queer people from history. I love to imagine them not being held back by fascism and censorship. When I discovered a box of scratchy old sound recordings from some cinema pioneers, I knew they’d give me the chance to imagine. From 1920s Berlin, jazz bars in New York and the dressing rooms of actors Paul Robeson and Louise Brooks, The Film We Can’t See hopefully offers a new way of looking back at history.
“It’s been amazing to have BBC Sounds incubate this podcast series and develop me as a maker through Audio Lab — The Film We Can’t See would not exist without this incredible support.”
The Museum Of Bad Vibes by Hanna Adan
Treasured artefacts inside Britain’s celebrated museums speak for the first time in The Museum Of Bad Vibes.
The UK has around 2500 museums that attract around 100 million visitors each year and between them, they hold a staggering 275 million objects and artefacts. But have you ever stopped to think about how the objects found their way there in the first place and what they might say if they could tell their own stories?
In this five-part series, Hanna Adan explores a collection of cultural and spiritual artefacts housed in British museums. From 16th century Benin bronze sculptures to Chinese ancestral tablets and a Koi board carved from a tree in Papua New Guinea, these objects and their ancient spirits are heard for the first time, and have much to say.
With the help of experts and scholars including Oluwatoyin Sogbesan, Dr John Giblin, Sarah Byrne, Chika Okeke-Agulu and more, The Museum Of Bad Vibes also delves into the origin of each artefact and whether they should, or could, be returned to their homelands and intended communities.
Hanna Adan said: “The series stems from my love of museums. But just because you love something doesn’t mean you can’t critically examine it, right? I always questioned how the museums acquired these objects, what an object’s story was before it came to the and what if the objects could speak for themselves? So like a true millennial, I thought why not make a podcast about it. Without Audio Lab it would have stayed as a thought in my head! I’m so grateful to the team and my mentors for helping me bring the series to life.
“Producing it was far from easy – working out the format, crafting the dramatisations and finding the right voices – but with each interview I learnt so much. I hope that when people listen they hear how much thought and care went into it.”
Blossom Trees And Burnt-Out Cars by Talia Randall
Blossom Trees And Burnt-Out Cars unearths the radical ramblers and activist gardeners who are opening up nature to everyone.
One in five people in England struggle to access green space. Sometimes it’s because of where they live but more often it’s because of who they are. In the 1930s, a group of ramblers trespassed on privately owned land to assert the rights of working-class people to go for a walk in the countryside. Today groups like Black Girls Hike and Blak Outside are challenging the idea that people of colour don’t belong on allotments or green spaces.
Over the six episodes, Talia Randall meets the nature-loving pioneers who are breaking down barriers – visible and invisible – that keep many locked out of green space including a YouTube gardener tacking racism with mulch, the nature writers who don’t fit the traditional mould and activists reclaiming the right to belong in rural England.
From a park in Glasgow, to a beach in Cornwall and a Traveller site by an A road in London, Blossom Trees and Burnt-Out Cars explores our relationship with nature and asks how it contributes to our identities.
Talia Randall said: “If you had told me a year ago that I would have made a nature show I would have howled with laughter. Me? Are you sure babes? Throughout this process I told myself I wasn’t making a typical nature show but now that I’ve made the series, I don’t really know what typical means. This journey started with a simple question – who does and who doesn’t have access to nature? – but it’s grown into so much more than that. It has been a way-in to talk about class, race, status, belonging, joy, which children are allowed to play freely in parks and which are seen as a threat.
Being part of Audio Lab has been exhausting, thrilling and eye-opening. The other audio creatives are absolute diamonds. I’m so excited to share the podcast with you and hear what listeners have to say too”.
The Film We Can’t See, The Museum Of Bad Vibes and Blossom Trees And Burnt-Out Cars are available now on BBC Sounds.
