Title: Hungerford: Symphony of a London Bridge
Genre: Documentary
Format: MiniDV
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Running Time: 2 mins, 58 secs
Release Date: Summer 2009

- Click here to download a PDF of the film's press pack.
- Click here to view a gallery of images related to the production.

Synopsis:
A crisp summer's day in London. Commuters pile on to the Golden Jubilee footbridges which surround the old core of Hungerford Bridge. The day progresses as people bask in the splendour of the bridge. But suddenly there are people everywhere – rush hour! People, people, people. Everyone, it seems, is quickly clamouring to leave the bridge...

A modern-day city-symphony, the film presents an abstract journey over Hungerford Bridge and the footbridges alongside it. Taking inspiration from the Soviet Montage Theorists, the film also examines the clash between the modern and old, in content (bridge/footbridges) and in form (style/technology).

Director’s Statement:
'Hungerford: Symphony of a London Bridge' started life as a very simple concept: to create a film in the city-symphony genre and, more specifically, to do so in the style of the Soviet Montage Theorists. With the form of the film thus decided, we needed content. Hungerford Bridge and the Golden Jubilee Footbridges alongside it seemed like the perfect solution. Firstly, the combination of train and people, water and steel, mechanical and human, seemed to fit perfectly within the genre we were trying both to pay homage to and lovingly pastiche, and, secondly, there was something about its architecture which just seemed so...Soviet. As the film progressed, certain things perhaps got left slightly by the wayside, and of course our own personalities and filmmaking sensibilities came into play (perhaps leaving us with a film more inspired by our influences than in the style of). Furthermore, a new level to the film seemed to rise to the surface: a clash between the old and the new. This clash manifests itself in a twofold manner: in form, for we made the film in an old style while using modern digital technology; and in content, for there is a beautiful but jarring disparity between the modern footbridges and the old train bridge whose sides they flank. Thus, it would seem, the film has become as much a comment on modernity as a postmodern comment on (and tribute to) a sadly outmoded style and genre of filmmaking.

Alex Barrett
London, August 2008

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Full crew for 'Hungerford: Symphony of a London Bridge':

Crew:
Directed & Edited by Alex Barrett
Written & Produced by Rahim Moledina
Photographed by Peter Harmer
Music by James McWilliam