New Town Utopia is a new documentary from director Christopher Ian Smith, which has been selected to play at the Southend Film Festival on Saturday 26th May. I got a chance to ask Smith a few questions about what his inspirations for were creating the film, why he chose to take a look at Basildon and working with Jim Broadbent.
What can we expect from the film New Town Utopia?
It’s a story of Basildon told through its artists, musicians and creative. It looks at the town’s journey from utopian dream to modern reality, but hopefully does so in a way that is honest, poetic and challenging. The people in the film are funny, honest, but have led tough lives, but they haven’t stopped doing the things they love.
At the very least I hope that through watching the film encourages people to see Basildon and the...
What can we expect from the film New Town Utopia?
It’s a story of Basildon told through its artists, musicians and creative. It looks at the town’s journey from utopian dream to modern reality, but hopefully does so in a way that is honest, poetic and challenging. The people in the film are funny, honest, but have led tough lives, but they haven’t stopped doing the things they love.
At the very least I hope that through watching the film encourages people to see Basildon and the...
- 5/25/2018
- by Philip Rogers
- Nerdly
In his new documentary New Town Utopia, director Christopher Ian Smith offers an eye-opening account of how greed and political bias played a hand in the downfall of what was billed as one of the greatest social experiments in post-war Britain. The scheme which was hatched by Clement Attlee’s Labour government, came under the 1946 New Town Act which was devised to improve the lives of working people across the country and more specifically in London which was still recovering from the fallout of the Blitz in WW2. Many East End dwellers made the move from London to these new towns seduced by the promise of new homes and better paying jobs, however less than 50 years later most of these towns were left to slowly deteriorate and those who lived in them with nowhere else to turn to.
Focusing the bulk of the narrative on the birth of Basildon, one...
Focusing the bulk of the narrative on the birth of Basildon, one...
- 5/3/2018
- by Linda Marric
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Here’s your daily dose of an indie film, web series, TV pilot, what-have-you in progress — at the end of the week, you’ll have the chance to vote for your favorite.
In the meantime: Is this a project you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments.
New Town Utopia
Logline: What happened when we built Utopia? A documentary about grand utopian dreams, the harsh concrete realities of globalization… and some rather angry puppets.
Elevator Pitch:
Basildon, UK: A town with a terrible reputation, failing economy and unhappy population.
It wasn’t meant to be like this… the British New Towns were designed as social utopias, built to create a ‘new type of citizen’ – with homes by progressive modernist architects, job opportunities, green space and a plethora public art.
The characters are a group of funny, complicated artists who’ve led challenging, and sometimes tragic lives. This includes...
In the meantime: Is this a project you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments.
New Town Utopia
Logline: What happened when we built Utopia? A documentary about grand utopian dreams, the harsh concrete realities of globalization… and some rather angry puppets.
Elevator Pitch:
Basildon, UK: A town with a terrible reputation, failing economy and unhappy population.
It wasn’t meant to be like this… the British New Towns were designed as social utopias, built to create a ‘new type of citizen’ – with homes by progressive modernist architects, job opportunities, green space and a plethora public art.
The characters are a group of funny, complicated artists who’ve led challenging, and sometimes tragic lives. This includes...
- 9/15/2016
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
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