Filmed in 16mm. in London's West End and Notting Hill, the first film of West Indian actor Reckord, later to head the Jamaican National Theatre, follows out of work immigrant Stona (The HARDER THEY FALL) trying to recover an his last ten shillings, loaned to a fellow West Indian with a hard luck story.
This one was at the tail end of an initial batch of BFI funded Experimental Film Fund product. It was written off when it came to a halt still a half hour mute work print. A new cutting room team took it down to eleven minutes and added titles and a track featuring Reckord's narration and an original Free Form Jazz score. This version was enthusiastically received at the London Film Festival and had some international distribution.
However getting only polite encouragements to show power brokers their next one sent the makers off without any return on all their unpaid effort. They turned to the production of the more challenging and ambitious DREAM A-40 which upset organisers who had expected another nice little film about immigrants having moments of truth in front of fruit barrows - like TEN BOB IN WINTER
These two short productions however gave Record the distinction of being the first black man to direct drama films in Britain.
This one was at the tail end of an initial batch of BFI funded Experimental Film Fund product. It was written off when it came to a halt still a half hour mute work print. A new cutting room team took it down to eleven minutes and added titles and a track featuring Reckord's narration and an original Free Form Jazz score. This version was enthusiastically received at the London Film Festival and had some international distribution.
However getting only polite encouragements to show power brokers their next one sent the makers off without any return on all their unpaid effort. They turned to the production of the more challenging and ambitious DREAM A-40 which upset organisers who had expected another nice little film about immigrants having moments of truth in front of fruit barrows - like TEN BOB IN WINTER
These two short productions however gave Record the distinction of being the first black man to direct drama films in Britain.
