CELEBRATING UNTOLD LOVE STORIES OF THE 1980S!

A brand new photographic archive and film project celebrating the hidden love stories of couples who fell in love 40 years ago.

We want to find couples with an inspiring story to tell about their path to love in the 1980s. We are looking for them to share their story, along with special photos and vintage video footage of a special day. We’ll gather the stories, photos and other memorabilia to make a brand new short film and build the first photographic archive about love in 1980s Britain. We are particularly hoping to find couples who overcame obstacles - whether that be racism, homophobia or class prejudice - to build their lives together,

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The film will premiere at Barbican's produced festival, Leytonstone Loves Film in October 2020. 

At a time when romance and relationships are often presented as being as simple as a right or left swipe on a dating app, we want to know what it takes to find each other and stay together.

Does this sound like you or someone you know? If so, keep reading!

WHY ARE WE EXPLORING THE 1980s?

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The 1980s was a memorable decade for so many reasons.  It was colourful, eclectic and sometimes strange and bizarre! It certainly produced some of the most spectacular art, music, film and fashion, which continue to inspire younger generations today. Like anything in life, you can’t have the good without the bad. Forty years on and the 1980s has so much resonance and parallels to our contemporary moment, we had a Conservative government, unemployment was high, racism was rife and there was a deadly new virus spreading across the globe. 

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And yet, in amongst all of this, we still had LOVE. People were still falling in love, although this was easier if you fitted the norms of society. For those who didn’t, falling in love often had to be in secret, especially those in gay or interracial/mixed faith relationships. 

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After everything we've all been through over the past few months of lockdown, now seems like a perfect time to launch a positive project about love and what unites us. 

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This project is about celebrating and discovering the unheard stories about falling love in the 1980s. While going on this journey with the couples, we'll also be documenting important British social history.

DID YOU EVER MAKE A LOVE SONGS MIX TAPE FOR ANYONE? 

We would love to know which songs you picked! 

WHAT ELSE ARE WE LOOKING FOR? 

We are interested to find out about any special memorabilia, objects, clothing, photographs or souvenirs of that time. For example, concert or cinema tickets. 

It might be that you don’t have them anymore but if you have photographs of them, we’d love to see those.. 

WE'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU

We're looking to gather as many love stories from the 1980s as possible. If you have any questions or just want to find out more about the project, feel free to get in touch with us.
We'll get back to you as soon as we can. 
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