Art Beats Festival

Maxwell Haddow-Mendes

I am a 3rd year student of (BA Hons) Film Studies at Lancaster University, with an English, Scottish and Portuguese background.

I have produced multiple documentary, drama and comedy films in both England and Scotland and plan to make many more. I do not have a preferred genre, rather I thrive on changing environments and situations.

I love to play guitar and sing in my spare time and have always been a keen photographer. Living on the Isle of Skye has opened my eyes to a world of wonder. Scotland and England are both fantastic places of interest for my imaginative mind.


Throughout my life I have always been interested in the history of the towns and cities I would visit or be brought to. In every town there is a wild history. I have made documentaries in Scotland and England and hope to make many more in the future.

Lancaster: A City With A Living History (2023)

Director’s note: If you are reading this before seeing the film, it is recommend to watch the film first, as its aim is to educate on minimal context.

Nevertheless, ‘Lancaster: A City With A Living History’ is a city symphony genre-style film that observes Lancaster (Lancashire, UK) and sheds light on the city’s contrasting beauty and dark history. This is accompanied with a musical piece performed by Maisie Wong. The music was recorded over the edit so as to not actively construct the flow of the city but to exert the sound of it.
 
The colour of red in Lancaster has two deep ties: it links to the red rose, through the War of the Roses, but also to the slave trade which led to the vast infrastructure improvements within the city (so the city was/is financed by the profits made from slave trade) – therefore, I have isolated the colour red.