Slow Karma

I don’t often single people out for special merit, but I must mention in despatches a young film-maker I stumbled across last week. Leigh James Beard is a graduate of the MA in Multi Media at Nottingham Trent University and he invited me to his graduate show being held at the Bonington Building. I’d met Leigh before when he’d acted in a play produced by the East of Eden Company (run by a friend of mine, the talented Kieran Brooke), but I had no idea that this young man was also a film-maker.

I was treated to an astonishing pot-pourri of short films – there were ten in all, and they were being shown on ten different screens in a room which had been designed as a replica of someone’s apartment (it was in fact Leigh’s own apartment, and he had built the set himself, even moving in his own furniture to make it authentic). The films were all on continuous loop; some being displayed on TV sets, some on flat screens, whilst others were projected onto the walls and even one which was projected onto the ceiling. To view this one, I had to wear headphones and lie on the floor in a fake pool of blood (I use this phrase advisedly because it was the pool that was fake, not the blood – a pool of fake blood would have been rather messy).

Some of the films were straight-acted dramas, some part animation, and others included an element of digital manipulation of the images. All were quirky, original and artistic and of course, every single one was written, produced, directed and acted (with assistance) by Leigh James Beard. The fact that this was an entire conceptual event rather than just a simple screening made it all the more impressive. I think we should look out for this talented young man whom I suspect has a remarkable future ahead of him. I hope so, anyway.

In addition to this, I’ve had a rich and varied weekend. On Friday I was given a gift of a painting that was created especially for me by a friend of mine – it’s beautiful, and contains an image that is both poignant and humorous and it is now proudly displayed on the wall of my apartment. Then there was Susi’s birthday bash on Friday evening, with its expected mix of madness and mayhem, and then on Saturday I attended a charming and colourful wedding – two old friends of mine decided at last to “tie the knot”, using this very adage as the theme for the day because it symbolises an aspect of their two main interests in life together: sailing and mountain-climbing. It was a perfect day.

I then spent most of Sunday saying goodbye to my dear friend Martha who is returning to her native country (USA) for three months. We shall miss you Martha – god speed, and come back to us soon. Nottingham will be a different place without you, although I suspect that you will also find it a very different place when you eventually return. Here, we don’t stop moving on, moving on.