Hereford: Presence of the Past

Description

The film is narrated by Philip Booth who also appears in the early scenes. We first see him playing a piano on a concert stage. There is no audience and the image cuts to Booth sitting on a bus. His voice over explains that his musical career didn't work out so he is returning to Hereford. We see Booth at Hereford bus station and his narration explains that he is looking for something - the presence of the past in Hereford. An image of the Black Mountains is used throughout the film to signify Booth's quest.

We then see a livestock sale at Hereford cattle market and traders at the Butter Market (indoor fruit and vegetable market in Hereford). Stills of Hereford in the 19th century cut to shots of a post war housing estate in Hereford (Booth makes the point of people no longer living in the city centre). He goes on to portray consumerism as something that has swamped the intangible spirit that he is searching for - this is shown by images of a man looking at a Japanese motorbike in a showroom and then a dream-like sequence of the motorcycle being ridden. We next see inside a busy pub and continuing the dream-like imagery the drinkers start to sing 'Land of Hope and Glory'. We also see scenes of boys playing rugby (implied that they are from a public school) which is cut with stills of dead First World War soldiers. Booth also suggests that elderly people (and therefore history itself) are "cast aside" and we see images of old women in a nursing home. Finally inside a building that is used by community groups we see a man dressed as a goblin (the Green Man of old English legend) and a group of morris men (the Breinton Morris) perform a dance in the centre of Hereford.

Credits

Narrator - Philip Booth
with thanks to Breinton Morris
Camera - Gerry Pinches
Sound - Steve Phillips, Mike Billing
Production Assistant - Annette Cunningham
Film Editor - Andrew Denny
Associate Producer - Steve Timmins
Executive Producer - Brian Lewis
Director - Peter Farrell