Dreams of a Life - by Carol Morley
Over the past four or so years, i have periodically met up with filmmaker Carol Morley, her producer Cairo, and cinematographer Lynda Hall. We have usually gone to sit in a dark, quiet studio with various nervous interviewees, and slowly over many hours of filmed interviews an extraordinary story unfolded in front of us. Carol of course knew exactly what she was doing as it was her film, and she knew the characters and stories better than anyone, but for someone like myself who only knew a rough outline of events it was a remarkable and shocking story to hear; in 2003 Joyce Vincent died alone on the sofa in sheltered housing in London. Three years later her body was found, and the questions began to mount. How had she died? How had her body lain undiscovered in the flat for three years? Why had nobody noticed her absence and reported it?
It became the story of someone who seemed to have fallen between the cracks - a place akin to ‘down the back of the sofa’…somewhere where you would not only be lost, but also forgotten. But the interviews I sat through with Carol, Cairo and Lynda showed that Joyce hadn’t been forgotten, just lost. Everyone remembered her, but couldn’t understand or explain what had happened.
Carol Morley’s new film ‘Dreams of a Life‘ tries to piece together something of Joyce Vincents life from around the time of her death. It is a mixture of reconstruction and interviews with her old friends, colleagues and lovers - i recorded sound for the interviews, and a friend from the National Film School - Christopher Wilson - was responsible for the sound edit. I’m really pleased to see a great reception for the film at places like the London Film Festival, and good reviews from The Guardian, Variety and Time Out.
I hope that anyone that manages to see it enjoys it as much as i enjoyed working on it.
— Posted by Matt in Uncategorized | No Comments
