Goodnight Wigan

Lenny Chiltern OBE (Recinded) is a washed up and faded light entertainment star, former host of the popular TV gameshow 'Show me the Prizes' on Penine Television. His best days are behind him and the haze and excitement of the golden era of light entertainment but a distant memory.  With a healthy dose of North West glamour and plenty of Ale and Pie gravy.

 Goodnight Wigan explores the darker side to fame, exploring the rise and fall of working class comics in the golden age of early evening TV, laying bare the blood, toil, tears, laughter and glitter tape of climbing the slippery pole towards stardom and the ignominy of sliding back down again.. 

But is Lenny about to be afforded one last shot at the big time?

Fore Away 

A man finds solace in an unlikely place, but is all as it seems?

Shot during the hot, strange summer of Covid lockdown 2021, Fore Away explores the nature of solitude and where we find catharsis. However with detachment can come a more troublesome realisation.

The Worm

A contemporary re-imagining of the traditional North East folk song ‘The Lambton Worm’.

'The noises began that night after dark, Between the Shipping forecast and the last bedside lights'

'The creature plonked on its hilltop throne, Laid down it’s demands'

Shot on location in Northumberland, the film at it’s heart uses the artists poem ‘The Worm’  to tell the story of the emergence of a legendary giant worm on a North East Village.   

The film plays on the ambiguity found within traditional folklore storytelling and literature comparing this to the confusing nature of current news and media tropes and the use of metaphor and mythology as a tool to reflect modern changes, fears and concerns, leaving the viewer to decide for themselves what is really going on.

The Worm exists as both a malevolent and observant presence throughout the film, evocative of the fears and hypocrisies of middle England, the decline in community and the growing suspicion between people. The film examines further our growing fears of ecological collapse, environmental exploitation and development infringing on natural and rural locations aswell as reflecting issues raised by the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic such as the uneasy relationship we have with the natural world and our vulnerability to it's whims and unknowns.

Shown At The New Bridge Project, Newcastle Upon Tyne 2022

Selected as part of 'New Moving Image 2021', Caraboo Projects, Bristol.

The National

A young man in an ambiguous future Britain breaks into the National gallery, he encounters something he recognises. A duel ensues between man and painting, national identity and representation, history and future.

Red Dagger

A Zero Hours Ghost StoryA drudge dèrive through the contemporary and historical Psychogeography of London. Red dagger follows a young man caught in the current trawl net of Zero Hours contract work. Traveling across London between night shifts working menial jobs and long hours late in the new moneyed dark heart of the capital, the protagonist unwittingly awakens the forgotten ghosts of London's violent social and economic past whilst beginning to question his own position at the bottom of Britain's new Globalized free market food chain. 

Canary

A Solipsistic journey through the post-industrial landscape of South East Northumberland, this film follows its protagonist on a journey of self reflection through a region defined by abandoned coal Staithes and grey cooling towers. Focusing on the sudden absence of the heavy industry upon which communities built up around and generations of men relied on for employment and a sense of pride this short film asks the question, what next?

Short article about the film: http://artmag.saatchigallery.com/rca-opens-studios/ 

 Selected for Film and Video Awards short film festival.

Poundland

A journey to a rather strange corner of England...The new development of 'Poundbury' in Dorset. In 1993 building began on the new model village of Poundbury, situated next door to the largest iron age Hill fort in Europe 'Maiden Castle', this is not any ordinary village, and construction has not been without controversy.  

Mothballed

Short visual documentation covering the closure and demolition of Lynemouth Aluminium in Northumberland, an important and iconic employer in the region. Features interviews with workers associated with the Alcan plant.