As most readers of this blog probably know I love rivers so I was very keen to see the film Swandown, which had only one showing at The Filmhouse cinema. Thankfully I managed to get to that one showing and was very glad I did!
Swandown is a gloriously eccentric British film. Two men (film maker Andrew Kötting and writer / historian / geographer Iain Sinclair) travel from Hastings on the south coast of England to Hackney in London by means of a swan shaped pedalo. Along the way they meet anglers and dog walkers and talk about what rivers mean to them. Their journey is inter-cut with archive materials about the rivers of south east England and quotations from writers including Edward Lear and Samuel Beckett. It's a wonderfully odd tribute to the unique nature of rivers with a bit of a protest against the construction of the Olympics site added in.
Hopefully the film will be shown again at some point, and all I can say is, if you get the chance to see it, do....
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other web-pages where you can find out more.
6 comments:
It sounds like the kind of documentary film I love.
Interesting plot, I will look for a dvd of this film. I am fascinated by rivers too...as for poems on rivers I would like to signal the great "Dart" by Alice Oswald.
Hi Juliet,
I love rivers also, so will look out for this movie if it comes here.
Have a great weekend
hugs
Carolyn
That sounds an interesting film. Thanks for the review.
Here we have Deliverence!
What a trip!
Sounds like a nice movie! Thanks for the review. Hope you have a lovely weekend!
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