NORTHERN SOUL

David Fearnhead speaks to Cameron Lee, a Lancashire filmmaker with a passion for representing the north

It’s a pleasant evening in mid-June and a figure lurks outside the Hammersmith Apollo. He’s been waiting there for two hours or more amidst a small group of autograph hunters, only he’s not there for a selfie.

As a stage door is unbolted and slowly opened, a crack of light, the expectancy builds. David Byrne, the former frontman of avante garde rock group Talking Heads steps out into the London night. Still handsome though now sporting a fine head of grey hair, he stops to chat a little. The figure sees his chance. Stepping from the shadows he reaches out and hands a letter to Byrne. A few words are exchanged before Byrne takes the letter and is whisked away by his personal driver.

The letter is just one of the many unique ways filmmaker Cameron Lee is trying to raise funds for his latest project, The Future Stone.

“It’s a film about a terminally ill man who makes a bucket-list journey up to the Isle of Jura and stumbles on a mysterious stone which is said to predict his future,” says Cameron, of the drama, which will star the German-based Japanese musician, Damo Suzuki.

Whilst it may be set in the far reaches of western Scotland, Cameron is from much closer to home. He was born and raised in Lancashire until, at the age of 18 he went to study at University in London.

“I never quite knew how northern I was until I moved down south,” Cameron says with an accent that appears undiluted. He is proud of his ‘northernness’, and is keen to honour his roots.

“It’s really important to me that the film feels northern. I’m just fed up of everything feeling so southern. It’s not that I have anything against the south, I just think that the north is very poorly represented. Moving down to London makes you realise how southern-centric the country is. Everything just revolves around what’s going on in London.”

Cameron says his passion for film took hold when he was around 14. He’s not from an arts background: “Mum’s a teacher and dad sells concrete blocks.”

Any attempts to get him to study business failed. He had a strong creative drive and an interest in photography, yet it was his love of observing people that convinced him he needed to study film at university.

Whilst Cameron can quote the prerequisite obscure foreign directors such as the late Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, and the much-admired Michelangelo Antonioni, the Italian director who re-envisioned storytelling during the 1960s, he’s also a fan of the social-realism of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh. Yet he’s quick to reassure that he’s not one of those self-indulgent film makers who only the art crowd gets. “That’s not my audience,” he says.

“I went through a period where I wanted to make things which were more niche, but I really just want to make something that everyone can enjoy, and still take something deeper from it. It doesn’t matter if it’s Kes or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as long as you get something from it. I want to create an image that is so strong that you can’t remove it from your head, but at the same time one that is backed up by real emotion.”

And it’s film rather than television which he feels most drawn to. “I like to be able to start and end a story within a couple of hours. With film even if something is boring it’s only boring for two hours,” he adds with northern humility.

Cameron takes a methodical approach when it comes to the production side. He’s budgeted his next production at £16,000. It’s not a figure he’s plucked from the air. Everything has been budgeted. From the minutiae of working out fuel costs to feeding the crew – it’s £4000 alone just to cover the cameras.

“A lot of money I know,” he says. “But to produce a film it’s actually not that much especially for taking a group of people to a remote Scottish isle.”

As for David Byrne, Cameron says he’s still hoping for a reply.

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