by Sebastian Doggart
The main reason I left England and moved to Los Angeles ten years ago was the dire state of the British film industry in which I was pursuing a career as a writer and director. Jobs were scarce and funding for new movies was fraught with bureaucratic obstacles. If you wanted training and didn’t get into the National Film and Television School, as happened to me, you’d have to teach yourself.
That was 2000, the year that the Labour government created the UK Film Council “to stimulate a competitive, successful and vibrant UK film industry and culture.” That body has since gone on to train hundreds of film-makers, and to help produce over 900 movies. Watching these pictures almost persuaded me to return to Blighty – fine dramas like This is England and The Last King of Scotland; witty comedies like Bend it Like Beckham and Happy-Go-Lucky; terrific documentaries like Man on Wire; and ground-breaking works of film art like The Arbor.
So it was with some amazement that I read on July 25th last year that the incoming Liberal-Conservative coalition government was abolishing the UK Film Council (UKFC) and had no plans to replace it.
Since then, a tragi-comedy has unfolded in the British film community that has inspired me to do detailed detective work both for this extended post, and for a screenplay that I am hoping will one day become my Four Weddings and a Funeral.
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