Password: conedancing

ROADSIDE MAGIC

Logline

The Museum of Roadside Magic takes to the road to revive the lost rituals of Roadlore. Who are the Skip Wytches, Diesel Clappers and Gasket Dancers? Witness the imaginary folklore evoke a forgotten sense of community, spiritualism and vehicular maintenance.

Plot Summary

Roadside Magic is a short hybrid documentary/mockumentary film following a motley crew working to revive the forgotten imaginary folklore of Roadside Magic.

The Museum of Roadside Magic (MORM) is a travelling museum situated in the back of a Luton Van (the gift shop is a tiny caravan towed behind the museum) by award-winning artist Libby Bove.

Over a summer we follow Libby and a RoadWytch coven of artists, writers, filmmakers, folk musicians, puppeteers, and storytellers, as they take the to road, visiting festivals, exhibitions, researching and uncovering various historical folk custom including songs, dances and academic papers on the lost art of Roadlore. The group collects songs and stories from the public, and provides hands on workshops for puppet creation, clay deities and vehicle charm making. Culminating in the tea time pageant - a selection of songs and dances performed for the public.

Roadside Magic is playfully disruptive, believing folk traditions are meant to be shared and enjoyed, not placed on untouchable pedestals. Using humour, MORM makes folk rituals engaging, fun and accessible. Many people already engage in small acts of Roadside Magic: a ‘lucky’ dashboard trinket, a sluggish engine coaxed up hills with whispered incantations. Why not a Molly Dance for a successful MOT?

MORM breathes ritual and storytelling into urban and neglected landscapes, using imagined histories to enable shared narratives to emerge.

NB. Although the folklore is arguably imagined - the characters and people are real and have lived in vehicles/ have a close relationship with life on the road.