An Interview with Barry Bliss
Barry Bliss, 64, is an East London filmmaker. He has made shorts, feature films and is currently working on a documentary called “Steve’s Film.”
Are you local to East London?
Yes, I was born in Manor Park and have lived in the East End all of my life apart from a brief sojourn to Notting Hill when I was an art student.
What do you like most about the area?
It has always been an area where creative people and those involved in the arts have found a haven (even back to the 18th century) which is quite ironic when you think how philistine the local authority have been. Like many who didn’t have a “proper job,” hence no security, we lived here because it was cheap (no more alas). But it was never a “creative ghetto” and so people from all sorts of backgrounds and lives happily rubbed shoulders with each other. The only thing was you could never get a decent cup of coffee but even that has changed now. I felt it was always a lost gem, overlooked by developers and the fashion elite, which suited us just fine, but that of course has now gone.
Can you tell us your age?
I’m 64.
Tell us about filmmaking?
Walthamstow was the English Hollywood in the days of silent cinema. We had the first ever purpose-built film studio here (built in 1910) as well as the first film rental company and filmed the first ever British epic (The Battle of Waterloo) over on Whipps Cross.
My filmmaking began at college where I was studying fine art. I had a great teacher called Bill Stair who was John Borman’s collaborator on everything from Point Blank to Zardoz. After leaving college I got heavily involved in politics and so left filmmaking for a number of years but then came back with a couple of shorts that were well received and this led on the my first feature film “Fords on Water”. After that I worked with various companies on many projects (most of which were unmade) until finally I made my second feature “Poppies” which had been developed for Channel 4. Since then I have made a number of other films and am currently working on a documentary called “Steve’s Film,” which follows a man who has contracted throat cancer on his difficult journey through treatment to recovery.
I have unintentionally worked as somewhat of a maverick to the film industry in that although I have received monies from the likes of Channel 4, British Film Institute and The National Lottery, my films have always been experimental in content if not in form. I have tried to keep an integrity and a consistency to my vision, which is often at the detriment of commercial success.
Is there anything else you are passionate about?
History and politics. I come from quite a political family — my father was in the Young Communist League in the 1930’s (he joined in anger after watching Mosley give a speech to fascists in the street near Upton Park station) and became a Trotskyist soon after the war’s end when he was demobbed. Strangely he never tried to influence me or my brother in an overt way and indeed I didn’t actually get interested in politics until I was about to leave school at 16.
I have always had that political antenna (taught from an early age) and I still remember arguing with a neighbour who supported Enoch Powell. My argument was full of passion and light on logic and I felt it went very badly so when the neighbour had left I rounded on my Dad and remonstrated with him for not intervening to help me out. His answer was that I was doing alright and he would have helped out if it got too one-sided but that this is how I had to learn. So politics has somehow worked itself into all of my films.
History has always fascinated me since I was a small child. One of my earliest memories is quizzing my father on an image of an Aztec calendar that I found in an encyclopedia.
You’ve said in the past that it’s tough getting funding for your films, what makes you carry on?
Why do I carry on when it’s so tough to get my films funded? Well I suppose I’m too stupid to do anything else. But I always am reminded (often by my long-suffering wife) that I chose to make the films I make — they are often difficult, sometimes quite political, but always (I hope) beautiful and interesting. Film is a business and there are accepted forms and narratives, there are fashions and there are those that are just plainly commercial. I’m not sure my films conform to a particular style and school or can be pigeon-holed. A telling example is usually when you go somewhere to beg for money you will be asked: “What film is it like?” If you can’t come up with a snappy answer: “Oh it’s Tarrentino meets Mel Gibson, with a touch Walt Disney?” then you are at a major disadvantage. Ultimately I suppose I think I still have something to say — whether anyone is listening is for another time.
