For Summer 24, Ffern are taking you to Tuscany. This season’s short film, shot on 16mm, accompanies folk singer and nature appreciator Sam Lee on a journey through green valleys and cypress avenues, between umbrella pines, meadows bursting with poppies and tiny hilltop towns.
Director, Peter Franklyn Banks, captures Sam singing the folk song of nature adoration, ‘Sweet Lemeney’, amid the distinctive landscape of the Arezzo region - foraging for impressions, sounds and objects.
A Note on Sweet Lemeney: The traditional song ‘Sweet Lemeney’ is an aubade - a song for the morning - which contains clues to a lost midsummer tradition. ‘Lemeney’ has likely emerged from the Middle English ‘leman’, a word that means sweetheart or lover. Midsummer’s Day (that’s today!) was once called Leman’s Day, and lovers would serenade one another at dawn… This version uses the Copper Family of Sussex’s words and tune.