Temporary Exhibition: Cam (Short Film)
2025-02-03 - 2025-03-31 | The Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0AQ, United Kingdom
The Museum of Cambridge is delighted to host CAM, a short film on the alternate view of one of the world’s most academic and prestigious cities.
Captured throughout 2023, the 4-minute film features black and white still images against an original score. Filmmakers Ryan Cooper Henniker (Being Both, 2019) and Matthew Ward (Stranger, 2024) set out to showcase a side of Cambridge that is seldom celebrated and mostly hidden from an external gaze.
Ryan, director and photographer, notes: “Cambridge is an internationally revered centre of academic and scientific excellence, an image that is continuously projected by media and City officials, but that’s only half the story: the city is so much more, and diverse in every sense of the word with a rich local history. Cam attempts to archive it before development and unaffordability turns Cambridge into something else.”
Every sound was recorded in person by Matthew, and the film’s sound design incorporates around 100 local voices alongside cars, mopeds, buses, construction work, bicycle bells, gentle sounds of the river Cam and its wildlife, and even someone vaping. Designed to imitate an immersive walk through the streets of Cambridge in 2024, it shows how every voice has a different rhythm and pitch, that changes in many ways depending on our emotions and environment.
Interview subjects consist of a wide range of residents from community group founders, staff at Milton Recycling Centre and local influencer and mental health advocate The Barefoot Guy. Participants’ stories highlight deep-rooted rituals and connections to the city and its former life as a collection of villages with their own customs. The stories of local families and views juxtapose with the increasingly transient nature of the city.
Cam features one interview with a resident speaking in the now rare Cambridge accent, a dialect dying out as new citizens move in, and long-time communities disperse.
The images were shot across hundreds of hours of walking the streets and connecting with locals, mixed with unexpected and unstaged moments, captured from afar.

The temporary exhibition Cam opens on Monday 3rd of February and will be on display until early April. Standard admissions rates apply. Entry is £7 with a donation, £6 as standard and free for 16 years and under.
Accessibility
You can read about our accessibility information on our website here Accessibility – The Museum of Cambridge. If you’d like to chat through any accessibility requirements, don’t hesitate to give us a call on 01223 355159 or email enquiries@museumofcambridge.org.uk. Visitors with additional needs are welcome to bring a supporter or carer who will be admitted to the event free of charge.
Getting Here
We are in the centre of Cambridge. You’ll find us at the corner of Castle Street and Northampton Street. We are right beside Kettle’s Yard and only a 15-minute walk from King’s College.
You can park your bike at the bike parks on Bridge Street or on Northampton Street. There is a bus stop on Bridge Street. Check out the Stagecoach website to plan your journey to and from the Museum. Find out more about how to get here by train, bike, bus, car or on foot on our website.
Healthy Events
If you’re feeling unwell or have recently tested positive for Covid-19, please do not attend this event. We’ll be happy to offer you a refund if applicable, and welcome you at the Museum on another day.
