Bury St Edmunds filmmaker creates documentary of Abbey 1000 activities during last year

A filmmaker is celebrating the completion of a documentary about Bury St Edmunds’ Abbey 1000 activities which was filmed over the course of last year.

Misha Panov, 30, who works at West Suffolk College, created the 22-minute documentary for tourism group Bury St Edmunds and Beyond, to help capture the events, and the town as a whole, for future generations.

The documentary features drone shots of the town as well as interviews with members of the community and historic photos of a pageant which took place in the Abbey Gardens in 1907.

He said: “I was thinking this would be like a time capsule. If you go on YouTube and type in Bury St Edmunds there are a few videos people have done in the 70s and 80s.

“I thought it would be great to capture the year and in the future people would be able to see what was happening during this interesting time period, what the town looked like, how the people behaved and what they were wearing.”

Misha was initially asked to create the video when he was a film student at West Suffolk College, but because of the pandemic the celebrations were delayed. Despite having finished his course, he still went on to shoot the documentary.

It proved to be a great opportunity for Misha, who has lived in Bury for nine years having originally moved from Latvia, to be immersed in the festivities of the town.

“I was pretty much a spectator of what was going on in the town. It was great just watching what was happening and to see how things developed,” he added.

Libby Ranzetta, chair of the Abbey 1000 C.I.C, said: “The video is a lovely record of the year and I particularly like the inclusion of the young people work because for me that’s what it was all about – using an engaging the next generation.

“It was a great overview of what we did and it captured some of the spirit of it.”

Now Misha hopes to set up his own video production company, with the hopes of telling the stories of people living in Bury. To get in touch with Misha, email him on milhailpanov@icloud.com