My Friend Eric is a film by the photographer Justin Partyka. It is the story of Eric Wortley, a 99 year old farmer from the region of East Anglia, UK, and what is left of the agrarian world he is part of. The region's agrarian farmers live a simple way of life, deeply rooted in tradition and shaped by years of working the land.
This film developed out of the long term photography project, The East Anglians, which Partyka began in 2001. For more information please see: http://www.justinpartyka.com/
This 7.44 minute trailer was produced to show as part of The East Anglians exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, UK (29 Sept - 13 Dec 2009) http://www.scva.ac.uk/
This film was made using a Canon G9 digital camera, and occasionally a Roland Edirol for additional sound.
Partyka began filming in 2008 and has approximately 80 - 100 hours of video. He is at work editing the film, with an expected release of Summer 2010. Further details will be announced on his website.
My Friend Eric is produced by Agrarian Pictures, a production company started by Partyka in 2009.
That's the first time I've ever needed subtitles for my own language. Pity there weren't any.
GhibliFan1 10 months ago
I look forward to seeing the full film - It looks beautifully shot and looks like it gives a real insight into a tiny fragment of what is left over of an older way of farming. I've read some fascinating books by George Ewart Evans about farming in pre-WWII England; although Eric obviously now has tractors on his farm, it's obvious his way of life (including the woodfired range) and his approach to farming dates from a time before WWII when farming was quite a different thing that it is today.
inaband 1 year ago