We Chat To Wellington Films About Their 25th Anniversary

For 25 years, Wellington Films has been producing films in Nottingham’s Broadway Cinema. Those films have not been solely based in Nottingham though, they’ve travelled from London to Brighton, to Mumbai and Palestine, from farm to forest. This July, they’re celebrating their 25th anniversary on 17th - 20th at the place where it all began, Broadway Cinema in Hockley. I caught up with Al Clark, half of Wellington’s team, to hear all about the event and what producing ten feature films and over forty short films has been like. 

What are the origins of Wellington Films?

Rachel, my partner, and I met on the Intermedia course that used to run at Broadway. Intermedia ran training courses, and it’s where loads of 90s and early 2000s filmmakers learnt their craft, invariably taught by Roger Knott Fayle, who died 3 years ago now. It was a course in video editing, lighting and sound, the practical side, though not directing or producing. After it had finished, I wanted to be an editor and Rachel wanted to be a sound recordist, but we couldn’t get into the industry because we didn’t have anything on our CVs, so we thought, let’s just make some films.

What was the process like to make those films?

We managed to raise £3,000 from EMMI (East Midlands Media Initiative). Rachel got her hands on some film short ends from a soap opera set and we rang up Arri to ask if we could borrow a camera to put all the film in and they said yes! When they asked, ‘What name should we put on order?’ We were like ‘umm’, then we thought Wellington Films because we lived on Wellington Square at the time and thought it sounded a bit grand. We set about making these shorts and so we sort of fell into producing, then we got these films into festivals and thought, well I guess we’re producers then. It grew from there.

When making those first films, what did you learn?

We made a short film called Royalty which is screening on Friday night alongside London to Brighton because the director of both was Paul Andrew Williams, who is amazing. London to Brighton made it into the London Film Festival and was picked up by Vertigo Films for distribution and got into Edinburgh Film Festival where it got a 5-star review from the Guardian and then a BAFTA nomination. It launched a lot of people’s careers, but everyone worked on it for free, or for deferred fees. We learnt a lot along the way. We learnt that a feature is a marathon, not a sprint. You can’t sustain the pace of a short for several weeks. 

You mention Rachel getting films short ends and chancing it with the camera company, do you feel that could happen today, or that making films is different now?

Well, you don’t have to shoot on film now, but back then digital formats were no good. Now, you can edit on your laptop, and your phone is better than the cameras available back then. The practical barriers are almost negligible. There’s more red tape now and people are probably more risk-averse, you have to do stuff more by the book. Certainly in the sense that people worked for deferred fees, you can’t do that anymore as an employer you have to pay minimum wage so it literally doesn’t work. But the attitude of getting together with your mates and just shooting hasn’t changed. 

You have so many films to Wellington’s name, how many are you showing at the anniversary?

Four features and four shorts. The films are paired each night thematically. We’ve put Doggy Bag and Sister Midnight together. Doggy Bag was directed by Roger Knott Fayle, so it’s dedicated to him. It’s nice to show our early days and then Sister Midnight is our most recent work. Getting Sister Midnight made, first time filmmaker, in Hindi, in India, shot on film, absolutely bonkers story. It was a real success getting that done and premiering it at Cannes. Royalty and London to Brighton are paired because one follows the other. I wonder what audiences now will think of London to Brighton, it was a shocking and urgent film. Island with Calibre are both directed by Matt Palmer. It’s great to show Calibre because it was such a success on Netflix and reached such an audience. Finally, Sudden Light with The Levelling because… well they’re both countryside films. It’s great to shout about Sudden Light because it was nominated for the short film Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival.

There’s a wide range in all your projects, is that something you always set out to do?

I guess variety, as they say, is the spice of life… it keeps it interesting. It’s not something we’ve consciously set out to do. We get involved in projects where we love the writer or director, and we can see a route to getting it made. Is there an audience out there for it? Does the size of the audience justify the cost? Something like House in Jerusalem is a small audience but it’s important politically and artistically. It was publically funded, so it doesn’t need aggressive funding like Calibre which is a more commercial film.  

I spoke to a young producer who mentioned your influence, is supporting young creatives something you’re passionate about?

We’ve been involved in the BFI Film Academy a lot over the years. Trying to inspire the next generations and give back what we got. We owe so much to Roger who just inspired us to get out there. Roger was a wonderful teacher, he never really said that’s wrong, he would encourage you to find a way of doing it better.

Maybe it’s a bit existential, but what do you see the purpose of film as, particularly at the moment?

Film is partly escapism, you can spend two hours away from your life if it’s stressful. But more than that, without art, not just film, what are we doing? As human beings, we need creativity, and something that we can look towards, look forward to. We did a screening here of House in Jerusalem, my friend brought his dad who was seventy odd, he came up to me afterwards and said thank you for making this film and that he understood better what’s going on.

What do you see for Wellington Films for the next 25 years?

If we’re still making films I’ll be exhausted! We’ve got various in development with new and exciting voices. Make interesting stuff that speaks to an audience, big or small. We don’t have a big expansion plan, just doing what we’re doing. But every film is different so we’re also never doing what we’re doing. We never know what we’ll be doing next year.

Wellington Films are celebrating their 25th Anniversary at Broadway Cinema.