THE ONE SECRET WE LEARNED FROM OUR MENTOR

I want to tell a short story about our great friend and mentor, the producer Christopher Hird and the amazing constellation of people and filmmakers that surround him. Also if you read on, you'll learn about the secret he gave us, which we feel is the most important of all the lessons he's shared..

Christo is one of the main reasons that the Bank Job Film exists.. because he's a pioneer and without the early work he carried out innovating with the feature documentary in the UK and the extraordinary help he has given us over many years, we wouldn't have known how to carry this film out..

His vast experience of the world of filmmaking along with his vision for a fairer society turns him into a kind of lighthouse.. and many filmmakers who find themselves at odds with the industry.. maybe even slightly lost at sea -  but wanting to bring their visions safely to life use his beam to safely guide them into the shores.

Christo at the bank in 2019

Way back in 2004 Hilary and I were just really starting out in filmmaking and art - I'm sure we thought we'd done a lot - we had made a few things but they could most honestly be filed under the tab 'early experiments' or 'student films'. 

.. We'd had this cool idea ..  to make a series of short films about artists who were "subverting the city"

- challenging the way the city was used - rampaging through it, somehow intervening in the great and powerful structures of capitalism..

(I've just added these films into the most up to date bank job membership site which hopefully you have access to..?)

Channel 4 really liked the idea and said they wanted us to make the films, but we had to choose a production company to work with..

It was getting pretty close to Christmas - So I'm tempted to say this was late November 2004 -

I remember that we were electrified with the news (our first proper TV commission)- and we wanted to get started straight away. - but we also knew that to make the films we were going to have to sail pretty close to the wind and I think we were overwhelmed and more than a little out of our depth..

We had to also persuade several groups including one which consisted of seemingly lawless anarchists we'd never spoken to (but who ended up being very nice indeed!)-  to allow us to follow them on one of their escapades through London..

The broadcaster gave us a choice of two companies to work with.. Most people were winding down for Christmas - and the first exec we rang told us we should get back to her in the new year.. she didn't seem to want to bother with what to them was no doubt a small and possibly difficult commission..

Next we rang up and talked with Fulcrum (Christo's company name at the time).

I remember the phone being placed on hold and that feeling of slight tension mounting - not knowing who was coming to the other end or what they might be like..

The voice that came on was female.. and American...

She asked what the idea was and we were immediately met with a much different sounding tone.. one of enthusiasm.

An invitation to come and meet ensued..

Hilary on one of our evening escapades from back the day

This voice at the other end of the phone soon became a great friend and ally too - executive producer and documentary director Emily James.. (and we have since had other escapades though that's a different story)

Christo's company was then down in Bermondsey, which if you don't know it is just off London Bridge..

It's right on the river, and it has narrow cobbled streets and it feels as close to the London of the middle ages as you can get..

Remember this was winter, the light was low - there was that smoky quality you sometimes get in London - but I would associate more often with New York - that mixture of biting cold outside with exciting and slightly exotic shops and offices we'd never visited..

As we approached his office, the lights of drinking dens were twinkling invitingly..

We felt a whole new world was suddenly opening to us -  we'd been living in London for a while - but I've always felt that there are as many millions of Londons as there are Londoners - and this was one felt brand new.. 

You have to understand walking into his office was quite intimidating - we had to buzz, explain ourselves and wait to get allowed in for a start - he was up a few flights in an old factory - I mean this wasn't Hollywood - but to us, this was a real documentary company - the whole thing felt next level, the company was all open plan and bustling with producers, assistant producers, execs, runners and directors all ensconced in the business of filmmaking..

Phones were buzzing, people were in meeting rooms, runners were arriving with coffees, motorbike couriers standing around waiting for tapes with helmets in hand..

It pulsed with energy and excitement - the receptionist ushered us over to a waiting area with a small glass table with a scattering of industry magazines - offering us tea or coffee.. "Someone will be with you soon" we were told.. 

After a very short wait in which we tried to chat to each other as if this was all perfectly normal, Christo arrived, the head of the company- like the building, bristling with energy and wearing what turned out to be trademark green DMs (don't worry he had other things on too) -

He sat down and put his feet up on the table, pushing the front feet of his chair off the floor a bit like a naughty school child breaking the rules - and inviting us to do the same

There was something slightly roguish about him. It was one of those moments where you just know you're in the right place.. like your whole life has led you to this moment - and it feels right (so often I get the opposite feeling!)

At that time me and Hilary were living in another old factory - but this one was in Hackney Wick east London, 8.1 miles north east but a universe away,

Back in those days, our bed was up on a piece of scaffolding we had fashioned with the help of someone handy - and the building was next to a concrete factory - so dust filled the air making our faces and clothes gradually change colour and our hair thicken up and stand on end as if we had been jolted by electricity..

We had no loo in our artists studio - and no shower - there was a toilet at the end of the corridor.. there was no insulation from the cold and the winters were bitter..  once a week we would visit my brother Max's flat - and both take a shower there, admiring in awe the black water mixed with shampoo as it drained down the plug..

The building  we lived in was also properly Dickensian, we weren't officially allowed to live there, we had almost no income or sense of how to run any form of a business and we were more or less living on a wing and a prayer (except of course we were both professed atheists) - I think at that time we were both gardeners and Hilary was doubling as a cycle courier..

I guess we must have been a strange sight..

The point I'm trying to make is that for us this series of films was more than just a series of films.. it was a passport to working on a new level.. if we managed to do it well.. so waiting for Christo - in that waiting room - represented a huge moment..

We hoped we could impress him with our professionalism - or at least the best veneer of it we could muster..

"So why do you want these films?" he asked.. 

Christo defied all expectations of a TV exec to us.. 

He became a mentor, and a champion, he helped teach us how the film and TV industry works - from the perspective of someone who wanted to make a difference to the world.

He helped us in so many ways, above all with his enthusiasm.. and he taught us one of the most important lessons in filmmaking..

never ever do anything that's not important.. in independent filmmaking almost everything goes wrong almost all the time.. and it's a tough and unforgiving business.

Everything takes ages.. so if you don't love it, just don't do it. 

Christo had worked at the investigations desk of the Sunday Times when it was under Harold Evans - and before Murdoch took it over-

His background was as a rigorous investigative journalist - and his TV company had been one of the original indies set up to deliver films to Channel 4 - not the Channel 4 we know from today - with its false edginess and its experiments in shock that go nowhere - but the early Channel 4 that still has the faint traces of independent thought and which would stand up to power like all good journalists should.

The Channel 4 that was set up to challenge the boring British broadcasting system..

The same Channel 4 that Derek Jarman made films for and wrote about in his book "Kicking The Pricks"

Christo was a perfect producer for that Channel 4.. 

Anyway, the lesson Christo shared with us was not just about how to choose to make a film - but it was a lesson we have tried to live by... know why you're doing something..

I've recently started to think back to what we learned - as I have been planning to run a workshop on manifestos - and why they are so important..

Being able to clearly articulate what you stand for - and creating a method around it to help others clarify why they do what they do / ..  I think we need a manifesto for almost everything.. I reached into my pocket earlier and pulled out a three line shopping list Hilary had written for me - and it read as a manifesto of what we needed in the here and now - again that's another diversion but if you're interested it contained "bread, soup, oatley milk and alpen (with no sugar)" if you listen really closely it might remind you of the communist manifesto? maybe if she had just added that I needed to get some land..

Anyway.. I think Christo's mentorship was - and is - a bit like a sort of living and breathing example of it..

You see what happens with manifestos is that they become an invisible set of principles that infuse themselves into everything you do.. 

And they were definitely evident in that production company on that day we first were introduced to Christo..

There were no words written on the wall - or bullshit motto’s of any kind / there was no mention of company culture or anything else imported from American pseudo psychology managerial mumbo jumbo - it was just there like an energy..

To me - Fulcrum just felt like it was there to create mischief and upset the established order, and for us it was a perfect fit.

Googling it now - just to check (you can see the rigour that goes into my stories) I can see that a Fulcrum is "a pivot point around which a lever turns, or something that plays a central role in or is in the center of a situation or activity."

That's exactly what it was - it felt like a sort of scene - Christo had pulled all these people together.. he had attracted them - and it all came from a sort of set of principles.. he had magnetised the entire situation

Part of the reason I'm writing this is because what really defines Christo's approach to filmmaking and to running companies is to have values right at the core of everything.. and to start with the WHY... why do you want to make these films?

And if I answer that for Bank Job - it's "to get the film and the message out to the most amount of people we can.. to help show people how money's created and that we can all get together and change things.." And that's why - we want to offer our film to everyone - even if they can't currently afford to watch it... there's a button below..

But I also wanted to send this message because with the pandemic still raging and with this time to reflect, I feel that it's important to celebrate the people who have helped us make the things we have made - who remain here, at our sides, fighting the ongoing battles.. getting things made despite the huge difficulties and despite the fact that the UK mainstream media is more about escaping reality than about shaping it in meaningful ways..

I hope you too - whoever you are - where ever you are - how ever you are - also understand that you're a part of the reason the Bank Job came about too - we could not have done this without our community - and we are thankful to you as well - 

Late last year, we lost another mentor - David Graeber - and it was a great tragedy - not only to lose him - but only to have celebrated all he meant to us after he'd gone. Of course the film itself was a form of a homage to his work.. but the film hadn't come out in any way when he died so suddenly..

Anyway, I think it's important to say thanks to the people who inspire us in the here and now!

So - thank you Christo, if you are reading this - onwards and upwards for all of us! 

I got to writing this message because one of Christo's other filmmaking mentees wrote to me this week. She has made a really cool film called "The Atom: A Love Affair" and the film is having a live screening in collaboration with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament next week on Feb 24th on the eventive platform.