A long-awaited film about Sidmouth Folk Festival is to have its first public screening at the Radway Cinema on Sunday, August 6.
Paul and Ali Tully’s documentary ‘A Small Quiet English Town’ delves into the history of the festival since its inception in 1955. It features archive video footage filmed by local residents, and interviews with several folk singers and musicians who have performed at the festival over the years.
Paul, of TPL Films, started making the film in 2014, but the original idea was formed back in August 1999 when Ali – then his girlfriend - brought him to Sidmouth to meet her parents while the festival was taking place. It began as the story of just the 2014 festival, but as time went on Paul and Ali realised there were hundreds of hours of unseen footage telling the story of the festival over the decades.
He said: “We had Sidmouth residents handing in old VHS tapes, old film canisters and other memorabilia to help with our filmmaking efforts.
“We even had a builder call us as he was clearing out a house and realised the Super 8mm film cartridge he found in their rubbish skip had ‘Sidmouth Festival 1961’ written on it - that’s also in the film.”
Among the many performers interviewed for the documentary are Ralph McTell, Eliza and Martin Carthy, Joe and Cole of India Electric Company fame, Edgelarks (Hannah and Phil) and Sidmothian Lori Campbell.
Paul said the film is just the initial phase of larger projects he and Ali want to pursue: “Now that we have the feature film we can move on to following up the many stories that we unearthed in our research and go to Phase Two. This will be a series of short films exploring characters, musical styles and instruments that in some cases have long been forgotten.”
The public screening will be the first chance to see the finished documentary. It will be made available on CD, DVD and BluRay, online via streaming, and next year he will release a collectors’ edition with added elements including a photobook and extra short films.
The proceeds from screenings, streaming and DVD sales will go to support the Folk Festival in years to come.
To book tickets for the screening on Sunday, August 6 at 5pm, visit the Sidmouth Scott Cinemas website.
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