Doc Rowe film and archive project

"Britain's greatest folklorist." The Guardian

Doc Rowe has been documenting the folk traditions of mainland Britain since the mid 1960s, and has built up a vast collection of irreplaceable audiovisual material spanning 60 years. Rob Curry and Tim Plester (the co-directors of THE BALLAD OF SHIRLEY COLLINS and WAY OF THE MORRIS) began making a film about Doc during lockdown, the primary impetus of which was to ensure that the archive was preserved for posterity. We want to feature as much of Doc's incredible footage as we can in the film, but, in the spirit of ‘being the change we want to see’, we want to play a role in permanently securing Doc's legacy. Rather than just digitise the bits we need, we are therefore launching this crowdfund to (hopefully, with your help) create a permanent digital archive of all the material related to folk traditions that is currently languishing on film stock and old video formats in Doc's hallowed archive in Whitby. The resultant digital copy will then be housed in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, and will allow Doc to share the material with the communities that preserve these customs, and eventually the general public.

WHO ARE WE WORKING WITH?

Cornish production company awen productions CIC, run by filmmaker Barbara Santi, recently received a large Heritage Lottery Fund grant to return Doc's huge collection of materials related to Padstow Mayday to Cornwall. This was our primary inspiration to launch this crowdfunder, and we are liaising closely with them so both projects digitise material to the same specification, and can be kept in one central resource.

The Museum of British Folklore have hosted numerous exhibitions with Doc, and are supporting this project from the outset.

The British Film Institute are providing the specifications for the digitisation process, ensuring the footage is future proofed and stored in the correct format.

Dirty Looks, one of the UK's premiere post-production houses, is overseeing the archival transfer process.

The English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS) will retain a permanent copy of the digitised material in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, and seek advice on how best to share the material publicly.

WHAT WILL WE DIGITISE?

This project has the specific remit to digitise and transcode Doc's film and video material related to folk traditions and calendar customs. Alongside the film and video material, Doc has a huge collection of sound recordings and photographs which also need a home. Additionally, he has an equivalent amount of material connected with traditional song, which is sadly also out of scope of this project. 

HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?

Doc's material is on a host of formats, but for simplicity's sake we've broken it down into broad categories.

• If we raise 9,000, we'll digitise all his film material from the 1960s and 70s.
• If we raise 17,000, we'll digitise all his VHS material from the 80s and 90s as well.
• If we raise 25,000, we'll also digitise his Mini DV material from the 2000s.
• Beyond that, resources will be used to complete the film and start the digitisation of Doc's traditional music footage.

The material will be stored on duplicate Enterprise Hard Drives, and archived on LTO-9 Tape.

ABOUT THE FILM

This new feature documentary from Tim Plester and Rob Curry follows Doc Rowe over the course of a calendar year like no other. Having spent the last 60 years documenting the enduring folk customs of the British Isles, his obsessive, perennial ramblings were rudely interrupted by the outbreak of Covid-19. Picking up with him on Mayday 2021, the film follows Doc through the travails of the forthcoming year, as he tries to get back on the road despite a series of health issues and imposed lockdowns. Alongside this, Doc has reached a crossroads in his life, and his vast collection of audiovisual material is now too unwieldy to manage on his own. The film follows Doc as he tries to find a permanent home for it all, and cement not only his legacy but that of the customs he has dedicated his life to documenting. A timely celebration of the varied working-class communities that doggedly maintain the weird and wonderful events that Doc champions, the film is a patchwork portrait of modern Britain, which offers-up hope during this turbulent period of fracture and renewal.

WHO WE ARE

Fifth Column Films have been making films about England's folk traditions for over a decade. Their first film, Way of the Morris, which told the story of the Morris revival in Tim's home village of Adderbury in North Oxfordshire. It screened at numerous festivals and was broadcast on Sky, and despite only being 63 minutes long, received a 40 screen cinema release in the UK. Their follow up, The Ballad of Shirley Collins, told the story of the iconic folk singer's return to the stage. It premiered at the BFI London Film Festival and was released theatrically in the UK and US. Their last film, Southern Journey (Revisited) retraced the footsteps of song collectors Alan Lomax and Shirley Collins across the Southern US. It premiered at Sheffield Doc/Fest, and was a Guardian 'pick of lockdown culture'.

ABOUT ‘DOC’ ROWE

David ‘Doc’ Rowe is a product of the 1960s art-school scene, which featured a democratisation of intake, whereby everyday folk were empowered to shape discourse and culture for the first time.

It is this background that helps inform Doc’s distinctive take on the festivals that he frequents; for it’s not the mythology and heritage that excites him, but the communal sense of togetherness that manifests at such events. Indeed, alongside his perennial perambulations, Doc was involved in both the anti-apartheid and CND movements, and approached documenting them with the same work ethic and inclusive spirit that he brings to the calendar customs. Perennially broke from self-funding his lifetime obsession, he has sacrificed anything approaching a conventional career in favour of the freedom to travel the country. Somehow, despite the far-flung places he visits, he’s achieved this without ever learning to drive - hitchhiking in the early days with a bagful of recording equipment. The document of this nation’s traditions and customs that he has built up along the way is an unparalleled and priceless resource for which we are all collectively in his debt. Working together, we can return the favour, and permanently secure the future of his irreplaceable body of work.