In 2022 we released a documentary about my father, and somewhere in the making of it I had to decide how much of him to put back.
A Life Uncharted told his story using the archive he left behind, including his own voice. It was the first time I had used these techniques on someone I loved, and the first time I had to work out for myself where the line sits.
What made it acceptable, I think, was that it was his own material and his own words, and that I am his son. Nothing was invented for him to say. The technology assembled what already existed rather than generating something that never did.
That principle turned out to be the whole of the next company. When Ben Field and I founded Deep Fusion the following year, the rule we started from was the one I had arrived at making this film: consent first, the person’s own material, and never words they did not say.
I did not know at the time that I was writing a manifesto. I thought I was making a film about Dad.
A BritBox UK original, launched on 14 April 2022 following a premiere at BFI Southbank on 9 April with a Q&A, then a nationwide cinema tour hosted by Jon Culshaw. International sales by Abacus Media Rights. Reviewed by SFX in issue 351.
