To celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month 2021, Pursued By A Bear present 'Nothing on Earth: Shorts', a series of digital films written by Anna Reynolds and made in lockdown. The six Shorts -  pieces of ‘theatre on film’ - look at women’s lives, historic and contemporary, lives lived with passion, endurance and courage.

Each story is linked to an element of flying, highlighting narratives, real and imagined, in which women soared. The spirit of these indomitable women is brought together in the final film 'How to Live or, The Trouble with Women...' which weaves stories shared by and about women from diverse backgrounds who live in Hertfordshire.

The heroines in the series include an ‘ATA Girl’ who loves to fly Spitfires, a Co-op worker who helped build a Lancaster Bomber, the cabin crew who takes up work in a care home when the Covid-19 pandemic hits, the young Muslim woman who defies the odds to become a pilot and the astronaut who breaks that final barrier by conquering space. Each Short features a song composed and performed by Helen Chadwick.

We hope you enjoy the six films below.

Learning To Fly

Learning to Fly is inspired by the ‘ATA Girls’ who were based at Hatfield De Havilland aerodrome (now the site of the University) during World War II. As part of the civilian Air Transport Auxiliary, these women ferried planes between factories, maintenance depots and frontline RAF airfields. Each woman flew alone, navigating and piloting aircraft of all sizes from Spitfires to heavy bombers such as the Lancaster, often with only ten minutes to become accustomed to the individual aircraft.

  • Writer – Anna Reynolds
  • Performer - Géhane Strehler
  • Director – Rosamunde Hutt (PBAB Artistic Director)
  • Composer – Helen Chadwick
  • Film Editor – Grant Watson

Learning To Fly was commissioned by University of Hertfordshire Creative Arts and premiered as part of the University’s Festival of Ideas: Reimagined, June 2020.

How to Build a Plane

It’s 1972 and Betty is reliving the thrilling time when she was one of a team of factory workers in Broughton, Wales. She’s rushing to build a Wellington Bomber in record time, helping to win the war of words as well as the war in the air. Betty’s story is based on the real stories of the women who undertook this amazing feat not far from where actress Nia Davies filmed the story.

  • Writer – Anna Reynolds
  • Performer – Nia Davies
  • Director – Rosamunde Hutt (PBAB Artistic Director)
  • Composer – Helen Chadwick
  • Film Editor – Grant Watson

How To Build A Plane premiered at Hertford Theatre as part of their programme of socially distanced cinema in September 2020.

How To Land

A young woman who worked as cabin crew pre the Covid-19 pandemic becomes a care home assistant when her airline collapses. She finds herself looking after June, a 94 year old with an extraordinary past – she flew Spitfires across the UK in the Second World War - and they discover that they share a deep love of flight and adventure.

  • Writer – Anna Reynolds
  • Performer – Suzanne Ahmet
  • Director – Rosamunde Hutt (PBAB Artistic Director)
  • Composer – Helen Chadwick
  • Film Editor – Grant Watson

How To Land was premiered by Trestle Theatre, St Albans in September 2020.

How To Space

Obsessed with the night sky and what lies beyond, a young girl longs to travel into the unknown. Will she defy the odds like her heroines - the astronauts Valentina Tereshkova and Mae Jemison - and achieve her dreams?

  • Writer – Anna Reynolds
  • Performer – Chanel Glasgow
  • Director – Grant Watson (PBAB Associate Director, Film)
  • Composer – Helen Chadwick
  • Film Editor – Grant Watson

How To Space premiered as part of Watford Fringe Festival in October 2020.

How To Take Off

Against all odds, expectations, and prejudice, a young woman is the pilot of a commercial aeroplane. How to Take Off draws from the story of a former cabin crew who became the first UAE female pilot.

  • Writer – Anna Reynolds
  • Performer – Safiyya Ingar
  • Director – Rosamunde Hutt (PBAB Artistic Director)
  • Composer – Helen Chadwick
  • Film Editor – Grant Watson

How To Take Off was premiered by the University of Hertfordshire Arts in November 2020.

How To Live or, The Trouble With Women Is…

How To Live or, The Trouble With Women... weaves stories shared by and about women from diverse backgrounds and life experiences living in Hertfordshire. It portrays moments of lives lived often quietly but with strength, passion, endurance, humour and courage; of tragedies borne and survived; of achievements big and small often unnoticed but no less remarkable.

  • Writer – Anna Reynolds
  • Performers – Suzanne Ahmet, Nia Davies, Chanel Glasgow, Shalini Peiris and Géhane Strehler
  • Director – Rosamunde Hutt (PBAB Artistic Director)
  • Composer – Helen Chadwick
  • Film Editor – Grant Watson

How To Live or, The Trouble With Women... was commissioned by Dacorum Borough Council in January 2021.

Nothing on Earth: Shorts are funded by Arts Council England's Emergency Response Fund, Dacorum Borough Council and University of Hertfordshire Creative Arts.