The Second City
(Charlotte Slade and Reuben Smith, 2025)
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
The Second City emerged from my personal experience of moving away from home and confronting the emotional tension between familiarity and displacement. I wanted to explore how cities are not only physical spaces but are shaped by memory, feeling, and perception. Influenced by structuralist film and city symphonies, I approached the camera as a tool for reinterpreting reality rather than documenting it. By contrasting Liverpool and Lancaster through colour, rhythm, and pacing, I aimed to externalise my internal state—one city vibrant and emotionally charged, the other distant and subdued. Incorporating found footage allowed me to layer personal history into the film, transforming nostalgia into something more fragmented and active. The use of a familiar voice in the soundtrack further emphasises absence and connection. Ultimately, this film is less about place itself and more about how we carry “home” within us, even when we feel disconnected from it. (Charlotte Slade)
This film was produced as part of the Experimental Production module.
SYNOPSIS
The Second City is an experimental film exploring memory, displacement, and the emotional divide between two urban spaces: Liverpool and Lancaster. Drawing on structuralist techniques and the tradition of the city symphony, the film presents the cities not as narrative settings but as experiential fragments shaped through rhythm, repetition, and contrast. Liverpool appears vibrant and dynamic, constructed through saturated colour, layered imagery, and fast-paced editing that reflects memory’s intensity and emotional warmth. In contrast, Lancaster is rendered in monochrome, with slow, static shots that evoke isolation and detachment. The film incorporates found footage, including personal home videos, to merge past and present, creating a fragmented yet intimate sense of identity. A disembodied voice recites a reflective poem, reinforcing themes of absence and longing. Rather than telling a linear story, The Second City invites viewers to engage with the materiality of film and consider how place, memory, and emotion intertwine.
Cast
Anthony Slade - himself
Charlotte Slade - herself
Elizabeth Slade - herself
Emily-Jane Slade - herself
Megan Lacey-Slade - herself
Crew
Charlotte Slade
Writer, Cinematographer, Director,
Producer, Editor, Animator, Sound Design
Reuben Smith
Writer, Cinematographer
CREW
Charlotte Slade
Rueben Smith