YARN The Movie

I'd seen this film 'YARN' across social media for the last couple of months, and was hankering to see it as soon as it was out. It was first officially screened in the UK Sunday 11th October and was thrilled to hear that Joeli of Joeli Creates had kindly organised a screening in Manchester! Before I go into more detail about the film I would like to briefly pause and tell you a bit more about the venue the film was shown at, as it is definitely a place I will be frequenting much more in the future.

The venue was Ziferblat, in Manchester's Northern Quarter. The name Ziferblat is derived from Zifferblatt, meaning 'clock-face' in Russian and German. This is apt because everything in the venue is free, except from your time. Yep, you can make yourself tea, coffee ('proper' coffee too for those coffee snobs out there, and yes, I'm one), toast and help yourself to cake and biscuits (the downside is you have to do your own washing up!) all for free. All you pay for is the amount of time you spend there. 6p per minute to be precise. I found it a really interesting venue, its set up as a huge lounge with massive sofas, smaller tables, space to do some quite, a definite haven for creatives, with none of the pretence you feel in these trendy coffee places. Its a real gem. I can definitely envisage a day sitting about, crocheting, chatting and over-caffeinating. 

After I'd drunk far too much coffee we settled into the back room for the film. YARN is a documentary-film directed by Montreal-based Icelandic film maker Una Lorenzen. It follows the stories of four female artists who use yarn as their creative medium. To make Art. Not craft, but Art. 

The film begins with the work of Icelandic crochet graffiti artist, Tinna Thorudottir Thorvalder, who uses her crochet and yarn bombs as an expression of political protest. We then entered the neon world of Olek, a Brooklyn-based Polish crochet artist whose crochet is a protest against the chauvinistic, male dominated art world. She was amazing, and her projects were at times hilarious! Next we meet Canada-based Japanese artist Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdams who crochets huge crochet installations for children to play on (think a crochet jungle gym) in response to the tech-based world we live in, where children are less likely to get outside and play, and less likely to have gardens to play in. Interspersed throughout the film we are treated to exerts from the Swedish circus company, Cirkus Cirkar, a circus where the entire set is made from yarn. Take a look at the trailer to find out more.

For me this brought up a few really interesting points. Toshiko talks about the way a woman can do the same thing, over and over again, making them suited to the fiber-arts. The question for me is, is this innate behaviour or learned behaviours over 100s of years?  I could also admire the quiet courage of Tinna, who moved to Cuba during the course of the film, making her gentle political mark with crochet in a country where expressing your beliefs can be dangerous. 

The film was also downright funny in parts. At one point Tinna released crochet decorated buoys into the sea off the coast of Spain, and a lady rushed in to save them as she thought Tinna had lost them! The reactions to Olek's crochet encased people was hilarious, and her canvas installation in Poland.....well I'll leave that one up to you to watch!!

All in all I'd definitely recommend giving it a watch. There are some things that would have been nice, such as making more of a connection between the four stories which would drawn everything together into a more cohesive piece of work. But whatever I say, its a film about yarn, and yarn (and yarn artists!) deserves to be celebrated! 

To find out more, and to organise a screening check out their website.