A Vividly Experiential Film Offering a Multi-Faceted View of Banksy’s Dismaland ‘Bemusement Park’

Filmmaker and photographer Jamie Brightmore has created what he calls “The Official Unofficial Film” of Dismaland, the “bemusement park” art installation by Banksy that recently opened in the resort town of Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, England. Brightmore was able to get tickets to the opening night, for two nights the next week and then even more through the next week, through sheer persistence and giving him great opportunity to witness the installation from different angles in different weather on different days.

When I first heard about Dis­ma­land my ears lit-up. The place looked set to be an amaz­ing play­ground for mov­ing image expres­sion, I imme­di­ately wanted to film it. With a strong his­tory of banging the refresh but­ton, I man­aged to score some ini­tial even­ing tick­ets for me and some friends. …On entry to the now famil­iar bemuse­ment park, I was some­what deflated as I’d planned some cool exper­i­mental motion con­trolled shots, which are just impossible without a tri­pod. How­ever I dug deep into my aged sack of ini­ti­at­ive and man­aged to bag some free­style shots. The fol­low­ing week I scored yet two more tick­ets, my luck was in and my refresh but­ton skills val­id­ated – for a third time.

With his vividly experiential video, Brightmore sought to share the installation with those who aren’t able to visit the park.

I aimed to cre­ate an aes­thetic which mar­ried cre­at­ive visu­als and sound, which would trans­late the essence of Dis­ma­land, so those who didn’t get to go –could get a fla­vour– and those who did could warm their memories.