A Life Together
A Love Story
Julie and Roddy have spent nearly 30 years building a life around marriage, music and performance. Together, they run a professional puppeteering company and are involved in running a large Morris dancing troupe in Norfolk. Behind all the puppets and dancing is a story about the wonderfully individual life two people can create together.
Julie and Roddy have spent nearly 30 years building a life around marriage, music and performance. Together, they run a professional puppeteering company and are involved in running a large Morris dancing troupe in Norfolk. Behind all the puppets and dancing is a story about the wonderfully individual life two people can create together.
Filmmaker’s note
I was initially drawn to Julie and Roddy because their life seemed wonderfully particular. There were handmade puppets, Morris dancing, music and a jacket Julie had decorated with Roddy's old guitar strings. But once we began filming, those things became a way of seeing the relationship underneath.
They met during a difficult period in Julie’s life. She was raising two children alone and struggling with the mortgage when Roddy, a finance man she had only recently met, offered to help. Her response was not suspicion, but: “What a kind man. I trust this man.”
While filming them at home and performing, I became interested in the shorthand they had developed over nearly 30 years. Julie tells the stories. Roddy listens, occasionally contributing a perfectly timed “Yes, dear.”
The film raised a larger question about long relationships. Perhaps a life together is not built through grand declarations, but through the interests, jokes, objects and quirky things two people gradually make their own.
Film details
Title: A Love Story
Location: Norfolk, England
Year: 2026
Filmmaker: Celia Peterson
Themes: Marriage, later-life love, companionship, professional puppetry, Morris dancing, creativity
Running time: 14 minutes 48 seconds
Filmmaker’s note
I was initially drawn to Julie and Roddy because their life seemed wonderfully particular. There were handmade puppets, Morris dancing, music and a jacket Julie had decorated with Roddy's old guitar strings. But once we began filming, those things became a way of seeing the relationship underneath.
They met during a difficult period in Julie’s life. She was raising two children alone and struggling with the mortgage when Roddy, a finance man she had only recently met, offered to help. Her response was not suspicion, but: “What a kind man. I trust this man.”
While filming them at home and performing, I became interested in the shorthand they had developed over nearly 30 years. Julie tells the stories. Roddy listens, occasionally contributing a perfectly timed “Yes, dear.”
The film raised a larger question about long relationships. Perhaps a life together is not built through grand declarations, but through the interests, jokes, objects and quirky things two people gradually make their own.
Film details
Title: A Love Story
Location: Norfolk, England
Year: 2026
Filmmaker: Celia Peterson
Themes: Marriage, later-life love, companionship, professional puppetry, Morris dancing, creativity
Running time: 14 minutes 48 seconds
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