Hurry up and Wait

The next random box of slides out of the box belongs to Australia. I'm pretty sure that these are iron ore mines. We were somewhere in central Australia between Sydney and Perth.  It was very close to Christmas, and so the height of summer. I never minded being away at these holiday times. I preferred to work. The up-side of so much travelling is that it becomes your way of life. The down-side is that you have very little going on, friendship groups mainly, when you're back home. My family loved travel.  We were pretty adventurous, taking full advantage of those 1960s/70s Clarksons/Thomsons package holidays to get as far away as possible - Tunisia was a favourite.  My sister lived in Dubai for many years. My mother was always going off on her own jaunts.  I remember well our flight back from Sydney to London. The only time I managed to secure an upgrade for all of the crew. We always had to have a big sum of cash in the budget for excess baggage charges on those 36 ...

This was a trip south from Japan mainland to the island of Okinawa. There's a big US military base there and we were there to film a day of training exercises.  We were due to fly home after this, and I opted to take a few days' leave and stay, on my own, to explore the island.  Unfortunately, it felt at the time, the army PR man learnt of my plan and invited me out with him for the evening.  They had been so hospitable, warm and welcoming to us, it was impossible to refuse. What excuse could I have used? The solider in the top photo, btw, was NOT, unfortunately, he, or I might have been less reluctant.  Anyway, he collected me from the hotel that evening, a Saturday night I seem to remember, and there were flowers. He did all the dating moves, like opening the car door for me whilst I cringed inside. I'll never forget the moment he pulled away from the kerb. My passenger seat wasn't fixed to the car in any way and it shot backwards. Yet more embarrassment. However t...

  I only wanted a macro lens, but this  Apexel lens kit for mobile phone  comes with all sorts of other goodies. Mine's an Android MotoG7, but I imagine the clip system will work on most phones.  I've abandoned the Kodak App and am now just using the macro lens with my phone camera and light box.  Still a way to go to get the best light and focus, hopefully I'll have mastered the mini-tripod by next time.  So, back to the lucky dip. Next up, Crew: Assistant Cameraman with silver box & stock bag & Director, Papua New Guinea Director & villagers, Papua New Guinea Assistant Producer & Director, Papua New Guinea Fixer, Japan Assistant Camerawoman, Ponape, Micronesia Happy crew days. And a rare assistant camerawoman, yay. I remember she and I sneaking off for a cheeky swim after we'd arrived at our hotel, a series of huts beside a lagoon. That evening as we sat on the thatched terrace sipping the best Pina Coladas ever, the hotel owners told...

March, 1987 The Philippines, what a place. An edgy Asian Wild West, full of music and the loveliest people. I once returned there for a holiday on my own. I stayed in Manila (in a hotel that turned out to be a brothel) and then travelled down to the stunningly beautiful island of Boracay. Those slides will surface eventually.  I worked on several films there, including  Bayan Ko Pilipinas, (1987) a profile of the film director Lino Brocka .  Lino Brocka Lino was a cult hero, a folk hero, man of the people. We filmed a march to the Palace, days after several nuns had been fired at, with Lino (and us) at the very front. This wasn't long after the Mendiola Massacre. My first experience of a political march. What I remember most is the flow. Of being carried along by the emotion and the fear. A strange, silent purpose. We were marching towards the guns, to the stand-off on the bridge where those nuns had been shot just a day or so before, and the site of the Massacre just w...

  The Santo Daime religion, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We were making a series of films about the arts of South America. My assignments were Brazil, Peru and Bolivia.  Ayahuasca is a big part of the Santo Daime religion. I could have taken some but refused. There were lots of sick buckets.  http://www.santodaime.org/site/site-antigo/archives/edward.htm Ayahuasca altar Favela children and giantess

Throughout the 1980s and early 90s I was a production assistant/manager and, later, director at the BBC. Mostly in the Music & Arts Department in Kensington House, London W12.  These were the high-days of documentary film-making.  We travelled the world light, not, with 35 large silver cases of film equipment, big square maroon boxes of precious film stock strapped down every which way, and a clapperboard.  Our crews were usually made up of a director, a cameraman, an assistant cameraman (very occasionally, a woman), a sound recordist (never a woman) and the production assistant (moi, & always a woman). Sometimes there'd be a sparks (lighting man), sometimes a researcher. Sometimes we'd hire local film crews. My job covered budgeting, contracts, copyright, paying  contributors, booking visas, permits, flights, hotels, local transport; logging the shots, watching for continuity and, yes, getting the coffees. I really wanted to be a camerawoman, but that wasn't...