A song thrush on the oller 2006

A 30 minute documentary produced by Joseph Cooper in North Liverpool about Education, Jobs and Health issues in the area in 2006. I was approached by Rotunda college to update a copy of a film they had in their possession.

The film was called “Us and Them” and was made by Peter Leeson in 1969-70. I offered 24 days of production and editing at a special rate I had set for community projects and was happy to take on the project.

The first thing I wanted to do was find out who actually held the copyright on the original film, so I set out to find Peter Leeson.

After extensive research I found Peter who was living in Leicester. I ascertained that Peter held the copyright to the film and in fact had the master in his loft.

I contacted the BBC about Peter and “Us and Them” and they run a regional news story and a feature (click here) about Peter and his work.

When I informed the Rotunda the copyright to the copy of the film they had in their possession was in fact held by Peter Leeson this changed our working relationship.

The Rotunda felt the new video should be made by the people of Scotland Road who attended the Rotunda College. I fully agreed in principal and set about taking weekly sessions to train people in basic videography and final cut pro editing.However, it soon became apparent that the planning and long hours of editing required to make the project a success was for many of those attending too demanding. Numbers dropped to the extent that finally, exasperated, I decided to shoot enough material to compile what you see above.

90% of what you see above was shot by myself and Aron Walker to salvage the project. I made the rough edit above and called the project to a halt. I passed on all the masters to the Rotunda who said they would make their own video using whatever material they wished.

However, the rough edit you see above is a document and very much in style of Peter Leeson’s original film, raw and unpolished. The interviews are revealing and the most positive thing to come out of the training sessions was the work of Angela Golden, Ann Cowley, Joey Harris and Jim Brown, especially in finding interviewing and recording Jimmy Barton.

^{Joseph Cooper}