Output details

The Houseless Shadow

The Houseless Shadow (19 minutes, High Definition DCP) investigates continuities between London’s nocturnal life today and the observations of Charles Dickens in his essay ‘Night Walks, The Uncommercial Traveller’ 1861. The film (directed, produced, filmed and narrated by Raban with sound by David Cunningham) investigates the relations between London at night in 2011 and descriptions of its iconic landmarks 150 years ago. Retracing Dickens’s footsteps over many nights, Raban stages an ethnographic enquiry into nocturnal London, filming his experiences and encounters with the capital’s rough sleepers. Raban's camerawork brings to view familiar yet often unreguarded London residents. The film and filmmaker’s engagement with these subjects offers innovative forms of visual and aural enquiry outside more familiar philanthropic intervention, offering perspectives at odds with more familiar iconographies of the capital. Striking similarities with Dickens's account of mid-Victorian London are uncovered, highlighting the growing numbers of the houseless on the streets of an otherwise glittering, cosmopolitan metropolis.

Commissioned by the Museum of London, the film was part of the ‘Dickens and London’ exhibition 2011-12. Raban was also responsible for the film’s installation within the museum. The Houseless Shadow is described on the Museum of London’s website as one of the ‘highlights’ of the exhibition (audience of 94,768 paying visitors exceeding the target of 75,000).

The film has been screened internationally in Europe and Latin America, and reviewed in the UK, including in Times Higher Education 2011, and in Germany.