On Wednesday our film ‘Chasing the Sun’ was shown at Clapham Picture House. The staff were delighted to see us and it soon became clear why. Turns out we were the best selling film at the cinema that evening, beating Mad Max, The Fall Guy and so on. Chasing the Sun continues to screen throughout the UK, details here https://www.chasingthesunfilm.co.uk/.
Our film ‘Chasing the Sun’ has been enjoying a warm reception across the UK. This week saw the film sell out in Exeter, last week Bristol and we’ve had great screenings across the Picture House and Scott cinema chains since our launch at Brixton Ritzy last month. There are still plenty of screenings coming up, including Spa Centre Leamington 21.5. and MAC Birmingham 5.6. Each screening has a Q&A afterwards and I am going to as many of them as I can. Do let me know if you can make it 🙂
You can see the full list of screenings here https://www.chasingthesunfilm.co.uk/
Read our 5 Star Review here https://www.cyclist.co.uk/reviews/chasing-the-sun-documentary-review
And listen to the Picture House Podcast here https://www.picturehouses.com/blog/the-love-of-cinema-a-picturehouse-podcast
‘Bardo: A Rogue and Peasant Slave’ played at the Beeston Film Festival last night. It was a great screening, with great feedback and lovely festival organisers. I could do this all day long tbf!
Cyclist Magazine has given our film 5 Stars. Read the review here 🙂 https://www.cyclist.co.uk/reviews/chasing-the-sun-documentary-review
As part of our inclusion in their ‘Green Screen’ series, Picture House Cinemas made a cool podcast with myself and one of our key contributors Emma Street. You can listen via this link. https://www.podbean.com/ep/pb-jcajn-15c3fa3
When you make a film, as a director one of the worries is whether your original intentions can be carried through all the twists, turns and compromises that the film making process throws up. So when this popped into my in box, I was delighted to see the Jeremy Vine quote ‘Inspiring and very enjoyable, a pinch of astro physics and a host of endearing characters’. That’s pretty much what I was aiming for Jeremy! CTS will be hitting the cinemas in April, starting at the Ritzy in Brixton on the 18th. More details to follow.
I used to send mailouts quite regularly, when I was teaching, mainly to let people know about forthcoming courses, to reach previous students. Then I stopped teaching and kind of forgot, oops! Anyway, with so much going on I thought I should re start mailouts, ie newsletters by email. Not too often, because thats annoying for anyone, so I’m thinking quarterly. It’s a nice way to touch base with people without being a pain. I’ve restarted with a special Valentine Mailout. It runs as follows –
Hello there,
I hope you are very well. My sincere apologies, its been a while. Which bought the dilemma of ‘when to mail out’? Well, when better than Valentines day? Time to share the love! Here’s a quick round up of stuff happening in my world that you might be interested in 🙂
AWARDS SEASON
We’re well into film awards season and the BAFTA’s is on Sunday. This will be the 20th anniversary of our film Brown Paper Bag winning best short film there.… Yep, where does the time go?? Anyway, it felt like a good time to check on more recent events and I’m pleased to say, its been a steady haul on the awards front both in drama and documentary. Our short drama ‘Bardo A Rogue and Peasant Slave’ (also penned by BPB’s Geoff Thompson) won awards at Dublin International Short Film and Music Festival, Shorts Factory and Birmingham Film Festival amongst others. ‘Making Connections’ a series of short cycling films, was nominated for a ‘Mode Shift’ Sustainable transport award and feature documentary ‘Chasing the Sun’ was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Kendal Mountain Festival. ‘Chasing the Sun is due for release in cinemas in April
Bardo Trailer – https://vimeo.com/646053193?share=copy
Chasing the Sun Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xmiql_PoQg
Making Connections Series – https://www.youtube.com/@birminghamconnected6895
NEW FILM – GET INVOLVED
If you’d like to get involved with my films, there’s still time to back the crowdfunder for ‘The Fastest Bicycle in the World’ we’ve had a great response and we’re 65% of the way to target. Can you help get us over the line? You can see the trailer and the campaign here – https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-fastest-bicycle-in-the-world-documentary–2/x/52209#/
FREE ‘SCALA’ WITH ‘SCALA!!!’
2024 bought the release of the Scala!!! documentary into UK cinemas about the infamous London Cinema, directed by Jane Giles and Ali Catterall. The film features clips from my very own ‘Scala’ documentary filmed during the cinemas heyday back in 1990. BFI are now distributing ‘Scala!!!’ On Blu Ray and the disc features the full version of ‘Scala’ (1990) in the extras. Check it out https://shop.bfi.org.uk/scala-blu-ray.html
TTFN and Happy Valentines!!
If you would like to join my mailing list, just drop me a line!
8.12.23 – For one week only, ahead of its official release in 2024, our film Chasing the Sun is available via Vimeo on Demand. One pedal stroke at a time… https://vimeo.com/ondemand/chasingthesunfilm/
Exciting times, I’ve been asked to join the jury for the awards at this years Birmingham Film Festival. Looking forward very much to the ‘do’ on 24.11.23 at The International Convention Centre
Our series ‘Making Connections’ has been nominated for a sustainable travel award at this years ‘Mode Shift’ awards, being held in York 23-24.11.23. You can see the series here https://www.youtube.com/@birminghamconnected6895 and find out more about the event here https://modeshift.org.uk/event/national-modeshift-convention-sustainable-travel-awards-2023/