Late last year, I became obsessed with visiting a certain item in the British Museum. Deliberately choosing to work in or near Bloomsbury, I would often wander into the building in between working, making my way straight to one of the room’s (on the right of the building) with a confidence and determination that clearly unnerved my various tourist companions. I would stride into the … Continue reading Responses: John Dee’s Obsidian Mirror
Having walked down the Lea Valley late last year with Gary Budden, we endeavoured to continue on from our point of departure in Planet Stratford and to follow the river right the way down to Leamouth where it finally pours into the Thames. Though on paper the walk was effectively a south-following meander, mapped largely (or at least so we thought) by potentially walking along … Continue reading Wanders: Leamouth Labyrinth
I remember before I first watched Ben Rivers’ Two Years At Sea (2011) that a certain review quote about the film caught my eye. It was suggested by a Time Out reviewer that Rivers’ film was “A rare thing in cinema: a vision of true happiness”. At the time, this idea framed my viewing of Rivers’ film as it rang true; not only was the … Continue reading Contentment and Chris Marker’s Chat écoutant la musique (1988)
One of Derek Jarman’s first short super-8 film was the haunting A Journey to Avebury. Early evidence that Jarman was interested in the genii loci of English landscapes, his walk through the Wiltshire landscape, after the intense stint of work on the sets for Ken Russell’s The Devils (1971), had a larger influence upon him than the singular short film belies. The ancient landscape generated a whole range minimalist paintings … Continue reading Responses: Derek Jarman’s Avebury
“Thanks to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds of human beings, either a liberal or a conservative.” – Kurt Vonnegut. Rather like J.G. Ballard, Nigel Kneale had a certain knack of preempting future social, technological and cultural trends. Kneale’s work is perhaps less appreciated than Ballard’s because the medium he predominantly worked in, television, is far and … Continue reading Nigel Kneale and Fascism
Apart from going on a number of planned walks throughout 2016, towards the end of the year I managed to head on a number of more random jaunts out into a variety of places. Though the reel of photos I took has come back mixed in terms of quality, the walks were still interesting enough for me to want to write about them. Three in … Continue reading Wanders: Odds and Ends
Once I loved a man who was a lot like the desert, and before that I loved the desert. – Rebecca Solnit Late last year, I watched two films back-to-back that effectively spoke of one very particular theme. Viewing Michelangelo Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point (1970) followed by Dennis Hopper’s directorial debut The Last Movie (1971) highlighted a number of unavoidable connections between the films. Both films … Continue reading Sex and the Landscape
I was initially struggling to put together a showreel for 2016. I don’t think my film work has ever been so reliant on its varied soundworlds for their full context and so pulling the strongest images out of that context doesn’t quite work. I’ve tried my best to make something vaguely cohesive from these moments though, looking back at the five films I’ve made this … Continue reading Showreel 2016
Having detailed some of the history that inspired my last film of 2016 in this article on Caught By The River, I have very little else to say in regards to The Attempt. It’s a mixture of essay film and drama, combining a stark moment in the life of the poet, Edward Thomas, with the tragic hindsight that he was not afforded. I wanted to … Continue reading Short Film – The Attempt (Edward Thomas)
As recently announced, I have a book being released in January all about Folk Horror and its many related areas of interest. The book has been in the works for the last year or so though many of the arguments within have been growing now for several years. Though I’ll undoubtedly being doing the usual interview-esque things to coincide with the release in December and … Continue reading Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange (January, 2017)
Celluloid Wicker Man 