The Old Ways: Cinematic Threads of Craft and Community
In an age of frictionless downloads and next-day delivery, the pull of the handmade feels stronger than ever. This spring, the Barbican Centre presents The Old Ways (Sun 22 Mar – Sat 16 May 2026), a season of international documentaries and animation devoted to craft, creativity and community. Part of London Craft Week, the programme invites us to watch, mend, knit, swap and gather in celebration of making.
Shades of Indigo (2024) Trailer. Directed by Shigeru Yoshida
Running through the season is an invitation to reflect on how we spend our time — and how making might reconnect us with ourselves and the creative histories we inherit. In Shades of Indigo, steam rises from fermentation vats in rural Japan as cloth is dipped, lifted and transformed from green to luminous blue. We follow young dyer Ryuta Sasaki as he coaxes indigo from leaf to pigment, tending the vat like a living companion. Once widespread, plant indigo has been overtaken by synthetics; here, a slower, more attentive rhythm opens up. Dr Linda Brassington – Chair of the Textile Society and author of Indigo and Resist Dyeing – introduces the film, tracing indigo’s deep roots in Japanese culture and its enduring resonance today.
Still from Fadenspiele 1 (Toying with String) 1999. Directed by Ute Aurand, Detel Aurand.
Thread slips its bounds in Pattern Testing, which turns the cinema into a softly lit studio. Needles click as felted forests, one-eyed woolly creatures and embroidered fables flicker across the screen in films including Soft Plants and Fadenspiele I (Toying with String I). Cloth becomes protagonist rather than prop, capable of humour, menace and dreamlike strangeness.
Historjá – Stitches for Sapmí (2022) Trailer. Directed by Thomas Jackson.
In Historjá – Stitches for Sápmi, the camera lingers on the vast linen expanses of Sámi artist Britta Marakatt-Labba. Born into a reindeer-herding family in northern Sweden, she has spent decades stitching memory and resistance into thread. The film centres on her 24-metre embroidery Historjá (2003–2007), a flowing chronicle of myth and lived history. A ScreenTalk with Marakatt-Labba, director Thomas Jackson and Barbican curator Lotte Johnson follows, supported by the Swedish Embassy.
The Colour of Ink (2022) Trailer. Directed by Brian D Johnson.
Tactility continues in The Colour of Ink, introduced by calligrapher Soraya Syed. Toronto-based ink-maker Jason Logan forages bark, berries and rust, transforming them into pigments that carry the trace of wildfire-charred hills or Tuscan marble. Each vial holds a landscape. For younger audiences, Woolly Animations pairs playful shorts with hands-on making led by Clara Peterson and a foyer craft swap.
Prairie Flowers (2021) Trailer. Directed by Mariana X Rivera.
Across In the Making and Yarn Stories, from Finnish mushroom-fibre hatmakers to Palestinian embroiderers and the quilters of Gee’s Bend, film bears witness to how making binds communities and sustains resilience. Ahead of Yarn Stories, the Cinema Café becomes a Textile Repair Café, with the Islington Fixers and TRAID helping to mend beloved garments.
In The Old Ways, the screen itself seems woven: light and shadow interlacing like warp and weft, encouraging us to consider how we might weave creativity, memory and care back into our own days.
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Further Information:
"The Old Ways", A season of international documentaries and animation exploring craft, creativity and community, is on at the Barbican, London, from 22 Mar - 16 May 2026.
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Image Credits:
Lead: To Your Hands (2025), Directed by Ana Mouyis. An experimental animated documentary that weaves together the stories of Cypriots who continue the local traditions of hand-made lace and hand-made halloumi.
All further images as credited in captions.