Crafting Memory in Place: A Fieldnote from Three Colours Green

For The Filmmaker Series, I sat down with filmmaker and photographer James Wainman. James’ creative journey began with telling stories about artists, designers, and architects, narratives anchored in form, place, and practice. This conversation reflects his evolving artistic focus: slow, observational work that elevates underrepresented voices and amplifies a sense of community through visual storytelling.

James’ recent short film series, Three Colours Green, exemplifies this shift. Created in collaboration with architect Shahed Saleem and commissioned by the William Morris Gallery, the pieces meditate on Muslim community life and memory in Waltham Forest. They weave fragments of voice, archive, and texture to create something closer to visual poems than conventional documentaries.

“For one of the films, Shahed and I explored Walthamstow and talked with people until we found somebody that we thought might want to engage with the spiritual themes of what we were trying to create.”

Creative Beginnings

James studied Film Production at The Arts University Bournemouth and began his career by making short films for small charities in Brighton and Hove. These early works produced outside the traditional industry cultivated his sensitivity to lived experience and visual storytelling rooted in care. Eventually moving to London, he entered documentary work and independent filmmaking, drawn to stories where space and people shape each other.

Storytelling Focus

At the heart of James’ practice is a commitment to telling stories from communities often underrepresented in mainstream media. This alignment with Mimbar360’s spatial advocacy particularly on emotional place-making and countering Islamophobia feels both timely and intentional. His projects are rooted in proximity, responding to places and people around him, whether local residents in Walthamstow or collaborators across London and beyond.

Capturing Space & Community through Film

Three Colours Green responds to an exhibition brief on Islamic art, but reframes it toward the present centring not objects, but lives, memories, and relationships embedded in the everyday spaces of Waltham Forest’s Muslim communities. Filming was guided less by script than by encounters, emerging as a meditation on collective presence and place.

“The process of filming and researching and meeting people was so important for me, even more so than the finished product in some ways.”

On Process & Filming Ethos

“For this project, I was more observational and reactive with the filming, while Shahed led the conversations and interactions.”

James described the making of Three Colours Green as a three-month filming and two-month editing process, culminating in a gallery and online release in early 2025. His approach was gentle, observant, and community-led. Collaborating closely with Shahed Saleem, he often took on the role of visual listener, letting the rhythm of space and interaction guide the story.

Creative Collaboration with Communities

The series was shaped by trust and openness from all the local communities featured particularly those around the Lea Bridge Road Mosque. Instead of pre-designed scenes, many of the most powerful moments came from people sharing unexpected corners, stories, and visual details. “It was wonderful, people were really receptive and helpful and wanted to show us the beautiful things in their spaces.” From lighting to layout, the interiors became not just settings, but participants in the visual dialogue.

Reflection on Access, Challenges & Openness

“The only thing we were told we couldn’t film was in the women’s prayer area… but otherwise people were really happy and enthusiastic.” James described the project as unfolding in a “best-case scenario.” Aside from natural privacy boundaries, the filming was met with encouragement and curiosity. People were proud to share their spaces, and often eager to appear on camera.

Filmmaking as sacred encounter

Throughout the conversation, one thing was clear: James’ films do more than document–they hold space. “Those small moments of connections are what I am interested in… where maybe the film facilitates a coming together.” In making Three Colours Green, he was not just filming places of prayer, but participating in a quiet, visual form of reverence. The camera became a medium for reflection as much as representation, transforming the work into a living encounter: between viewer, community and story, faith and space.

Imagining inclusive mosques through creative practice

I asked James how mosques in the UK might become more emotionally inclusive or engaging for younger generations. While he had not experienced barriers as a filmmaker, he expressed hope for more youth participation in shaping these spaces–creatively, socially, and culturally. He also highlighted the role of galleries as bridges for interfaith understanding.

“The people who came to the William Morris Gallery screening… some of them had never been to the gallery before.”

Spirituality & personal perspective

The process of creating Three Colours Green deepened James’ personal reflections on faith and connection to Islam, while also affirming his desire to connect with others through their lived experiences of space and spirituality.

“It’s a way of connecting with people and trying to understand what’s going on inside them and why they’re here.”

For James, spirituality is both a subject and a method: it shapes the way he observes, listens, and translates spaces into film.

Future Directions: Mosques, storytelling & sacred space

As I explored potential future collaborations, I asked James whether he would want to continue filming in mosques or spiritual environments. “I would love to spend more time with that idea of the spiritual experience of space.” He acknowledged the time constraints of Three Colours Green but expressed a strong desire to explore spiritual experience and community memory further, with more sustained attention to the subtleties of sacred space.