Filmmaker Harry Lawson and author Kathryn Scanlan join Now Instant for a special presentation of Lawson’s experimental documentary Stepney Western, paired with a recorded reading of Scanlan’s In With Both Feet, a piece written in response to the film.

The screening and reading will be followed by a conversation between Lawson and Scanlan.

Stepney Western is an experimental documentary by Harry Lawson, made in collaboration with a group of young inner-city horse riders from Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Recasting their neighbourhood as the Wild West, the film sits at the porous boundary between fact and fiction, combining recontextualised iPhone clips shot by the riders and archival material with Lawson’s own footage. It is loosely centred on their Alternative Provision programme — a unique alternative for young people in England who struggle in mainstream education settings.

In With Both Feet is a unique oral history of Stepney Bank Stables, written by Kathryn Scanlan in response to the film. The audience will listen to a recording of Scanlan’s piece, read by Paula Archer, one of the founders of the stables. What emerges is a kind of collective portrait, made up of edited fragments of speech from Lawson’s rushes.