The seven short films we’ve made in our role as Birmingham’s unofficial Election Artists (2024-25) are making their way to venues across the city over the coming weeks as the culmination of The Way I See It.

Inspired by 147 hours of interviews, 268 voicemails to our Hotline and 339 WhatsApp messages, our films home in on some of the recurring subjects and stories which mattered most to our contributors:

• Change — at his local polling station, a twenty-one-year-old is full of excitement as he votes in his first General Election and celebrates the value and importance of us all exercising our democratic rights;
• Rubbish — hunting for a lost wedding ring amongst his bags of uncollected rubbish, a man discusses his neighbours’ wildly opposing views about the ongoing bin strike;
• Health — a doctor’s receptionist praises the NHS while fielding the demands of patients’ calls to the surgery hotline;
• Food — between collections, a delivery driver reflects on the food waste and the food insecurity he sees around him across the city;
• Libraries — as her branch closes for the final time, a community librarian highlights the vital need for such spaces and the services they provide, a need that goes way beyond the borrowing of books;
• Climate — while trying to decide if she should go on her friend’s overseas hen do, a woman agonises over how much responsibility she can (or should) have when it comes to saving the environment;
• Future — a primary school teacher finds hope in the people of the city and their power to shape the world we live in for the better.

You can catch them every day (except Sundays) from now until Saturday 15th November in the South Entrance at The Exchange (B1 2DR). They’re also appearing at a host of other venues, including Sutton Coldfield Town Hall, Nechells POD, Oikos Cafe in Erdington and Edgbaston Community Centre — ahead of us launching them online here on Monday 1st December.