The Moon and the Sledgehammer is an incredibly influential if all too rarely work under whose spell Andrew Kotting and Ben Rivers have fallen. We turn the screening into a mini celebration of the director with rare screenings of his short films Lambing and Ship Hotel.
The Moon and the Sledgehammer
Dir Philip Trevelyan/GB 1971/65 mins
The Page family own a ramshackle house situated in six acres of woodland, 20 miles south of London. Isolated in their island-clearing, they let the 20th Century slowly pass them by. At first they seem eccentric, quaint; their ideas tangential to our own. But as the film unfolds, it emerges that they are in control of their world in a way that we can never be in control of ours.
Lambing
Dir Philip Trevelyan/GB 1964/23 mins
‘This is a film about a traditional Sussex shepherd who we follow from morning to night, through snow and wind, as he works alone with his flock. This was my first proper journey into filmmaking, and my subject was a person I had worked for and admired as a boy. We used an Arriflex camera with fixed lenses and occasionally resorted to a simple wind-up camera. No electricity was used for any lighting and all sound was “wild”.’
Ship Hotel
Dir Philip Trevelyan/GB 1967/32 mins
‘Initially, I took still photographs and wrote notes on my visits to a special and intimate riverside pub, used by engineers, ex-coal miners, factory workers and their families. The beer was cheap and well kept, singing was always encouraged and the people were close friends. There were several tales about the pub being a meeting place for lovers; I decided to add it to the purely documentary material, so the film includes three local friends who re-enact this element. The film takes place on a Sunday, and the landlord and his wife rise early to prepare themselves and the pub for the day ahead. We see their regular customers arriving, people at the darts board, the pub gradually filling.’