The Late Turn

Twenty years before,John Betjeman made a series of film on railways. This is an attempt to do something similar but with a railwayman`s dialogue accompanying the cinema-verite film.




'ejr' was the umbrella title used by filmmaker Nick Emery (aka ND Emery, Vane Tempest & the ejr, etc...) for all his independent (and predominantly) self-financed films made between 1976 and the cessation of production in 2000. All bar one were non-fiction films, most were proto-music videos -- uncompromising and singular - although a number feature an eclectic variety of subjects ranging from railways to sculpture.

Stylistically the films encompass the spectrum from the conventional and linear narrative to the iconoclastic and nihilistic. They often eschew such formalities as continuity and synchronisation, shaking up the moribund repetitiveness of the music video with kaleidoscopic layers of superimposition, jump-cuts and slow-motion stirred into the mix. This was not an approach guaranteed to garner mainstream or MTV-type exposure.

The template for early productions was the instantaneous accessibility of the news item developed by TV companies as the basis for their broadcasts and utilising the premise that any story can be told in three minutes (or not at all). They are all defined by an unorthodox approach, limited production values and financial constraints. An entry in a 1994 Exploding Cinema programme describes ejr films as being "....organic, they appear to have been grown rather than made". Influences include Peter Whitehead, Derek Jarman and Don Letts.

With the exception of three films all are less than ten minutes in length. Both "Dragtime - Gallon Drunk 1992", an early film of the indefatigable swamp-fevered rockers, and "Brewing up in Blighty" (1993/4) (aka "This New Model England") featuring the perennially underrated, experimental technoists and John Peel Faves, 70 Gwen Party, both run to thirty minutes. The only non-fiction film, "Burning Land" (1978-80) features a young woman dealing with identity and isolation and was inspired by Maya Deren's "Meshes of an Afternoon". Two other longer films -- "This Deadly Affair" (1981) and "Popness", dealing with the shamanistic and commercial rituals of popular music - along with a number of shorts from the 1990's remain unfinished and are unlikely to see the light of day. Many films from the 1976 -- 1984 period have disappeared and are presumed lost.

All the productions were originally shot on 16mm film with some sequences on Super8 and analogue video.

The dozen films on Youtube are a representative selection of ejr productions.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• withered
• arm
• southern
• railway
• barnstaple
• exeter

[gricerdude3]

Fantastic video. I was born in Barum in '86,it amazes me how much there still was there in the 80's in terms of infrastruture. Always interesting to hear old railwaymen talking.

[GhostCav]

I wish I was born 50 years earlier as todays railways are appalling. The TOC's are more interested in how lairy they can make their trains,the company image. Never mind the fact that it should be a service. I reguarly have to fit 400 people onto a two car 158 unit but at least its painted in the company colours!

Terrible stuff is happening on the railways of today & this is why I will never ever vote tory. They ruined what was left of a once proud industry.

[Blightyish]

I couldnt agree more on the comments about Beeching. You should all listen to the song "Slow Train" by Flanders & Swann on YouTube.

[railwaystationmaster]

BEECHING YOU BASTARD SHOULD HAVE HIS BODY EXUMED SO HE CAN BE KILLED AGAIN, HE MURDERED OUR RAILWAY !!!

[GhostCav]

Thank You very much for this film, I loved it. As a lifetime railwayman although only 35 years old I enjoyed the film no end. Loved the part about wages, yes we were paid bloody awful in BR days but in truth the better money with privatisation came at a cost....almost akin to selling our souls to the devil. I was a boxlad,shunter & signalman for 11 years. Then mobile ops manager & now a driver. In 17 years of working on the railways times have changed but not in a good way.

[mitralmikel]

Great Video with rare footage well found

[rextanka]

Brilliant thanks for putting this up.

[1010campaigner]

Excellent video, brought back fantastic memories of the seventies and eighties on the Barnstaple branch and the Signal boxes at both Crediton and Barnstaple !