ALISN in collaboration with the Goldsmiths Creative Enterprise Club

presents

The London Premiere of David Buchanan's

The Last Babacus


Saturday 28 November 2009
Ben Pimlott Lecture Theatre
Goldsmiths, University of London
New Cross, London
SE14 6NW

Schedule:
Talk by David Buchanan 1.00 - 1.30pm
Film 'The Last Babacus' 1.30 - 3.00pm
Open Q&A session with David and the Team 3.00 - 4.00pm







About 'The Last Babacus'

http://www.thelastbabacus.co.uk/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyqMi-6_cgc

The West Country’s first fairytale-musical feature The Last Babacus will receive its London premiere on October 18th at the Cube Microplex in Bristol. Shot on location in the Mendip village of East Harptree for just £2000, the film was financed by the directors’ day jobs at Wells Lidl and Chew Magna Co-op, shot over one summer, and edited outside work hours over the next four years.

The Last Babacus is part of a growing trend in cinema (e.g. Mutual Appreciation, The American Astronaut, Colin) for homemade, ‘no-budget’ features. With a camcorder and a domestic PC, it is now perfectly possible to bypass the usual industry production routes and make films as a cottage industry. The Last Babacus was written in a living room, edited in a bedroom, and props were made in a garden shed.

The film avoids familiar no-budget genres like social realism or the zombie flick, opting instead for the fairytale musical. The story is set in a technicolour neverland, whose innocent young inhabitants love to sing and eat cake – all day, every day. But a chance encounter with ‘The Babacus’ prompts questions about what’s really going on. Who is feeding the kids? And why are there no old people?

Comments made at the Harptrees Festival preview screening:

“Teletubbies meets the Blair Witch Project.”
“Extremely weird. I’ve never seen anything like it”

Director/writers David Buchanan and Rob Handy both grew up in East Harptree, and have been making films together for fifteen years.

The music and lyrics for the film were written by David and Rob, and performed by More Silage. http://www.myspace.com/moresilage

The ultra-low budget led to great inventiveness. The costumes were found in charity shops and the Babacus itself was made from rugs and plastic baskets bought in IKEA. The most impressive special effect was, in fact, free – the film is narrated by a talking tree, but rather than make an expensive ‘tree-suit’, the filmmakers simply found a hollow tree with a head-sized hole in the front, and put the actor inside. “He lost all feeling in his lower body,” remembers David. “We owe him several pints.”



The London premiere of David Buchanan's feature length epic musical 'The Last Babacus' is a collaboration between the Goldsmiths Creative Enterprise Club and ALISN.