Long time no blog – for which apologies.

But there have been some interesting/exciting Beg Steal Borrow developments over the past few weeks – with even more brewing – so keep a look-out for future events, too – since there hopefully will be screenings of Selfie, Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux and The New Hope to announce in the coming months, both in the UK and further afield.

The script

Let’s start with the script. William Brown’s screenplay, Kiss and Make Up, is in competition for six awards at the Oaxaca FilmFest in Mexico, which takes place 9-17 October 2015.

The script, a comedy that tells the story of a man who disguises himself as different people in order to stalk his ex-girlfriend, is one of the screenplays selected for the Global Script Challenge. And at Oaxaca, William will hopefully be meeting other writers and film people in order to be inspired.

Circle/Line shoot completed

While this blog does not constitute a final diary entry for the film per se, it is to announce that cinematographer Tom Maine and director William Brown finished shooting Circle/Line just before the end of August – and in spite of heavy rain that often made stopping people in the street for an interview next to impossible.

We did a mid-July shoot at Edgware Road, meeting in particular a couple of former students from Kingston University who are engaged in trying to do charitable work in the Middle East, before then filming in late August at Paddington, where we had a fascinating interview with a somewhat distraught and unemployed man, who feels hopeless with regard to being able to turn his life around – particularly in relation to finding a job.

There followed a rain-soaked interview Bayswater with, amongst others, a man from Sicily who talks to people about God, and a very chilled-out/relaxed guy from Australia who seemed to know the formula for happiness.

At Notting Hill Gate, we met some visitors from Germany and a student from Italy, before at High Street Kensington chatting with another German woman and a man on his way to watch the Arsenal play.

At Gloucester Road, we spoke in particular to an Argentine lady who is hoping to find a way to stay in London, a city that she feels that she loves. And at South Kensington, our final location, we chatted to two men, one French and one British, who are working on an app that is designed to help people to maximise happiness.

Given that the topic of the film is, with a hat tip to Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch’s Chronicle of a Summer, about how happy people in London are, this seemed a most appropriate interview with which to finish principle shooting. For, the final interview combined not only people also engaged in happiness, but also an Anglo-French effort to achieve it.

Now, for the edit. More news to follow when the film is ready for preliminary screenings.

The Benefit of Doubt

But, before that, Beg Steal Borrow are also set to shoot a new fiction film, The Benefit of Doubt, which retells the myth of Ariadne after she has been abandoned by Theseus in France’s Nice.

Starring En Attendant Godard lead Hannah Croft in the Ariadne role, the film will also feature performances from Beg Steal regular Nick Marwick, and Greg Rowe, who makes his second film with us after a small, but memorable role as an R2 unit in The New Hope.

Filmed in Nice, The Benefit of Doubt hopefully will also pay homage in part to Jean Vigo’s À propos de Nice, one of the great short films that was shot by Dziga Vertov’s brother, Boris Kaufman.

More news will certainly follow after the shoot, which takes place from 1st to 9th October, with Tom Maine taking up his regular duties as cinematographer, and with Andrew Slater also returning for production duties – with help from Annette Hartwell and Lucia D. Williams.