![](https://lowtherpavilion.co.uk/api3/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/f1f05892_Lowther-Cinema-The-Nettle-Dress-12A-1-480x357.jpg)
Lowther Cinema: The Nettle Dress (12A)
NEW SHOWShowing on Sun 28 Jul 2024
Running time: 2 hours
Age Guidance: 12+
Showing as part of our Folk, Roots & Maritime Festival and to celebrate World Conservation Day.
Post film talk by Fylde Eco Group members and demonstration of making nettle cord.
Free Nettle Tea to all ticket holders (while stocks last).
Textile artist Allan Brown spends seven years making a dress by hand, using only the fibre of locally foraged stinging nettles. This is ‘hedgerow couture’, the greenest of slow fashion and also his medicine.
It’s how he survives the death of his wife Alex, which leaves him and their four children bereft, and how he finds a beautiful way to honour her.
'Grasping the Nettle' is at the heart of this story. The challenge of making zero carbon clothing means relearning ancient crafts: foraging, processing, spinning, weaving, cutting and sewing.
Making a dress this way becomes devotional and healing.
‘While making the dress over all these years, I felt like I was being transformed by the nettles rather than the other way around, ’ says Allan.
‘When Alex was ill and going through chemotherapy, as soon as I began spinning yarn, I felt calmer. It became much more than just a piece of cloth; it's been woven with the stories of people who know and love you.’
The dress is made up of 14,400 feet of thread, each one epresenting hours of loving attention.
Finally, the dress is worn in the woods where the nettles were picked, by Oonagh, one of Allan's daughters.
Director Dylan Howitt says: ‘This is a story about the deep value of creativity and imagination, and a slow, mindful craft that is more in tune with the natural world.’
*****
'Dylan Howitt’s poetic documentary can be counted as one of the best cinematic surprises of 2023'
Mansel Stimpson, Film Review Daily
*****
'A moving story exquisitely told...a perfectly crafted gem'
Sarah Kent, The Arts Desk
*****
‘Poignant and moving, meditative and hypnotic’
Mark Kermode, Kermode and Mayo’s Take
****
‘A lyrical story of loss and solace’
Edward Porter, The Times