Mike Maloney’s Red Sails sailing barge film now available

Red Sails A4 free screening poster

Red Sails, the new film about the story of the sailing barges made by Mike Maloney, is now available on DVD from the Countrywide Productions website following a public screening last week.

I’m looking forward to receiving my copy and will write about it shortly – but I’m expecting a lot, given the welcome it has received:

  • Many congratulations on the magnificent film. I think the applause at the end expressed everybody’s sentiment – William Collard – project manager, Cambria Trust
  • Bob and I – and many other people I talked to afterwards – thoroughly enjoyed Red Sails. It was well researched, beautifully filmed and put together. The film is a valuable contribution to the understanding of the Thames Barge – Lena Reekie
  • I was very impressed by the film and treatment of the subject. It ‘reached’ me and I thought that the treatment of Jimmy Lawrence and Bill Collard was very effective in binding the film sections together – Phil Latham, ex-mate of the Cambria

Sailing barge film Red Sails free public screening at Faversham

Red Sails A4 free screening poster

Red Sails is a new Michael Maloney film that uses interviews and archive footage to explore the history and influence of the Thames sailing barge.

There’s a website to read here, and the film is to be launched to the public with a free public screening at the Royal Cinema, Faversham on the 7th December at 1pm.

Over generations, sailing barges had a huge influence on the development of London and towns, villages and rivers nearby and along the Thames Estuary and beyond, and this film looks at the craftsmen who built these amazing boats, their skippers, and the boys and men who crewed them.

For those of us who can’t make it (like me – I really should be working for a living that day!) there’s a page of links to preview Youtube clips here.

Film maker James Price charts the history of the Thames Estuary

Film maker James Price on the Thames Estuary

Film-maker James Price is making a film to chart the history of the Thames Estuary and its surrounding landscape – and here’s a short trailer. Thanks to regular reader Paul Mullings for pointing it out.

It was made with the director of Southend’s Shorelines Literature Festival of the Sea, Rachel Lichtenstein.

What fun these literary types have! But have a look – does it reflect how you see this stretch of water? Have then done it well? I can’t help comparing this stuff with Dylan Winter’s much more vigorous and salty stuff, or with Richard Fleury’s campaigning work on The Quay.