Overview

And Breathe is a 15-minute immersive film experience created by participatory filmmaker Megan Roberts during an artistic residency as part of the Sea for Yourself programme. Presented inside Market Hall’s Immersive Dome, the work invites audiences to slow down, reflect, and reconnect – with the sea, with creativity, and with themselves.

Real Ideas and Market Hall supported the development and presentation of the project, championing a collaborative, community-led approach that places wellbeing, shared authorship and local voices at its heart.

"And Breathe was born out of a curiosity to explore how filmmaking can be co-designed rather than authored. With each project, I try to move further away from work that feels centred on my own perspective, and closer to processes shaped by participant contributions.

When I’m stressed, I go to the sea. It doesn’t resolve everything, but it helps regulate me and pulls me out of my internal world. I know I’m not alone in this. I wanted to work with older people - with rich, layered life experiences - to explore their relationships with the sea and understand where it sits within their emotional landscapes.

I’ve always valued experience over information. I’m interested in making films that create space for people to feel, listen and recognise themselves, rather than telling them what to think. There is deep joy for me in hearing people’s stories and paying attention to the porousness between them - the ebbs and flows, overlaps, similarities and differences. I’m drawn to finding patterns across lived experience and synthesising them into a collective tapestry rooted in place and emotion, rather than presenting individual stories in isolation.

Creating an immersive experience rather than a conventional film has allowed me to lean fully into this approach. The work is shaped through animating collages made during the workshops and building a soundscape collectively, allowing many voices and sensations to coexist. And Breathe is as much a love letter to the sea as it is a reflection on what we bring to it, and how deeply we rely on it in our personal lives. Throughout the conversations that shaped the work, individual experiences naturally widened into something planetary - not as a new awareness of the sea’s importance, but as a shared sadness about what our species is doing to something that not only means so much to us, but that we depend on for our survival.

The film holds these tensions without resolving them. It creates an immersive space where care, dependence, grief, joy and responsibility can coexist, inviting audiences to reflect on their own relationship with the sea - not just as a landscape, but as a presence we live alongside, and which equally deserves our care."

Megan Roberts, Film maker & Artist, Sea For Yourself: And Breathe

The Creative Approach

At the centre of And Breathe is a participatory process that values collaboration over authorship. Rather than working from a fixed script, Megan Roberts co-designed the film with Plymouth residents aged 55+, through a series of workshops that combined collage-making, sound recording, coastal walking and shared reflection.

Participants explored what stress feels like in their bodies, how calm can be found by the sea, and the emotional connections people hold with Plymouth Sound. Using fabrics, textures, sound and conversation, they created collages representing both stress and calm. These collages now form the visual and emotional backbone of the film.

The workshops also became spaces for storytelling and connection. Participants spoke openly about grief, caring responsibilities, loss, brain fog and the pressures of everyday life, alongside moments of grounding and joy found by the water. Creating a safe, welcoming environment was central to the process, allowing people to share as much or as little as they wished.

"We're thrilled to support Megan Roberts to bring And Breathe to life at Market Hall. The immersive dome offers a unique canvas for artists to create transformative experiences, and Megan's deeply collaborative approach demonstrates exactly the kind of innovative, community-centred work we want to champion. At Real Ideas, we're committed to providing emerging and established artists across the South West with access to creative technology and the facilities they need to push boundaries and explore new forms of storytelling. We're delighted to support work that brings communities together while showcasing what's possible when artists have the space and resources to realise their vision."

Madeline Hall, Content Production & Partnerships Lead, Real Ideas

The Film Experience

Rather than a conventional film, And Breathe was created as a fully immersive 360° experience, designed specifically for Market Hall’s Immersive Dome. The film weaves together animated collages, collectively built soundscapes, and footage captured during coastal walks, allowing multiple voices, emotions and sensations to coexist.

The result is an experience that holds space for care, joy, grief and responsibility without trying to resolve them. It invites audiences to reflect on their own relationship with the sea – not just as a landscape, but as a presence that shapes wellbeing, memory and identity.

Why It Matters

For Real Ideas, And Breathe demonstrates the power of immersive technology as a tool for community storytelling and wellbeing. The dome offers artists a unique canvas to create transformative experiences, while collaborative processes ensure that the work is rooted in lived experience rather than observation.

For Market Hall, the project reinforces the venue’s role as an inclusive cultural space where innovative, community-centred work can be shared with wide audiences. The Immersive Dome enables stories like And Breathe to be experienced collectively, fostering reflection, empathy and connection.

Public Engagement

Market Hall are hosting free screenings of And Breathe, inviting members of the public to experience the film and take time to pause, reflect and enjoy this immersive journey with the sea. These screenings ensure the work remains accessible and community-focused, extending the impact of the original workshops to a wider audience.

Programme Context

And Breathe was commissioned as part of Sea for Yourself, a creative programme exploring Plymouth’s relationship with the sea through community engagement, heritage and artistic practice. The residency focused on the wellbeing benefits of spending time by the ocean, while also nurturing a deeper sense of care and stewardship for Plymouth Sound.

The production and presentation of And Breathe was generously supported by Real Ideas, with the programme led by Plymouth Culture in partnership with Plymouth City Council and Plymouth Sound National Marine Park, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England Place Partnership Fund.