And now for some inspiring news. K-Town film-maker Mungo Benson has achieved “the impossible” by writing, directing and producing a feature film, Castles Made Of Sand, locally shot and staffed – for a miniscule £4K.
The film, which features actors Daniel O’meara and Chloe Rose-Packer, with music by James Napier and X- Factor’s Sophie Habibis, is already touring festivals worldwide. But it has also just picked up a merit at the American-based Indie Fest awards, which recognises “exceptional achievement in craft and creativity”, and those producing “stand-out” entertainment or contributing to profound social change.
“Castles looks at the troubles and alienation of a man trying to adapt to life on the outside after spending twelve years in prison,” says Mungo. “Filmed in and around Kentish Town, it merges the murky past against the optimism of the gentrified future we can see blossoming all around us. And it’s happily defying the odds in making ripples in an industry flooded by million pound giants.”
A former graffiti artist, he explains that he only picked up a camera as a 16 year old “once there were no more walls to paint”. And he hasn’t stopped documenting Kentish Town life since, “carrying on the freedom and spontaneity of graffiti in the way I make films.”
The script was written “under a tree” on Hampstead Heath over a period of a couple of months. As the weather warmed up, Mungo developed it with the actors on the open pastures that provided “an eternal counterpoint” to the heavily urbanized story. “No one likes clunky conversations,” he says, “so dialogue wasn’t written down, allowing for spontaneity to be built into our instinctive film making approach.”
Benson believes micro budget film-making is an art form bound in the philosophy that there has to be a way around any obstacles. “Where we do not have money, we have collaborative powers coupled with a never-say-die attitude which transcends these restrictions and deficits. Ultimately creativity is something which is formed out of the ether: the more we rely on its guidance, the freer we are to move forward and create.”
So now, take a look at the trailer, with its truly haunting new version of The Verve’s Drugs Don’t Work by Tufnell Park-based Sophie Habibis.
And finally, some advice to any wannabes out there? “Anything is possible when people come together and put their heart and soul into something that they really believe in. If you have a story, pick up your pen and share it with the world.”
