Stratford short film wins award

A SHORT film written and directed by a local film-maker has picked up a prestigious award. Mike Booth from Clifford Chambers made Doctor for Mr Chaplin in a garden shed for £250.

The 14-minute film takes a look at the real character of film icon Charlie Chaplin. In 1919, Charlie Chaplin was one of the most famous people in the world. When he faints during a film shoot in California, he’s taken to his dressing room to be checked by a doctor. But as the doctor soon learns, the Charlie off-screen is not at all like the loveable tramp character he is so famous for.

Mike and actors John MacCormick, who played Chaplin, and Laurence Saunders who played Dr Cecil Reynolds, picked up the the British Lion Award for achievement for a film on a low budget at The British Independent Film Festival 2017 at Leicester Square in May.

Mike tells Herald arts: “Just having our film shown in Leicester Square was award enough for me, but to get the British Lion Award was the perfect end to a great experience. We were up against two feature films (Chaplin is only 15 minutes long and cost £250) so we weren’t sure of our chances and we were absolutely delighted to win. We even got a congratulations from Jason Flemyng who won best director for his film, Eat Local.”

So what’s next for Mike? “Unusually, I’m not working on any films at the moment,” he tells us. “Although I am having a go at writing a novel – a sci-fi action adventure called Hawk. It’s just reached 1,000 reads on a website called Wattpad where I’m uploading a chapter every week.”

You can see Doctor for Mr Chaplin on YouTube here