Haha well that worked out.
I haven't blogged about this before just in case. Handing over some of my precious one chip footage to someone else to make a film with has been totally out of the question for a long while, but there hasn't been a point at which I didn't like or trust Ishmahil from Rice and Peas who premièred Age of Extremes at the tricycle last night. He is a bit more anti "mainstream media" than I am, but talking to him about his own experiences he's had reason to be.
Over recent years I have seriously doubted I would do anything with my stuff, so it was good for me to let some out to someone with experience and passion to tell a story. Just chatting while we were transferring the tape dusted off a lot of memories, which was how I ended up actually being in the film as well!
I thought Ishmahil was just going to put a tiny section in but he's used a surprising amount. I was so stuttering and nervous when he was filming that later I asked if he wanted to have another go, but its all ended up just fine and it actually made me cry, seeing what I have been doing, or used to do as part of his story. Its obviously been a burden on my heart for a long time and its good to come out. It was very strange watching myself on the big screen without having seen any of it before. I don't think I have said anything I regret.
The "Helping British people not wanting to blow up" doesn't make grammatical sense, but to be included alongside a really good inside look at The Islamic channel, an insight into the debate amongst British Islamic women about the burkah, The BBC coverage of the floilla raid- I thought the whole film was a really good reflection of the UK and the story flowed really well.
Afterwards I had a bit of a chat with Moazzam Begg and Phil Rees. Moazzam seems like a man on a mission. I hope we can continue on a path with all this.
The next showing is at the Riverside Studios next Thursday, do come down.
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