‘She was an ordinary woman who did this amazingly brave thing’

Visual artist Sophie Dixon on a Northumberland heroine and the film she inspired.

On 7 September, 1838, a lighthouse-keeper’s daughter – Grace Darling – spotted shipwrecked survivors clinging to the rocks of the Farne Islands, Northumberland. After Grace and her father defied a raging storm to rescue them in an open rowing boat, Grace became a national – and international – celebrity, and was awarded the RNLI’s Silver Medal for Gallantry.

Visual artist Sophie Dixon talks to 200 Voices about how she used a game engine and 3D modelling to give a 185-year-old story a modern telling. Her short film, Grace, explores how, for the lady of the lighthouse, the blinding glare of media attention became too much.

Discover the story of Grace Darling.