Ashley Hutchings at Towersey festival on the Shirley Collins film

In June there was a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund a movie about the fascinating early life of folk singer and song collector Shirley Collins, to be made by Tim Plester and Rob Curry. The pair also made the elegaic Way of the Morris, and have their fingers in several other pies including, brilliantly, Game of Thrones.

Part of the blurb for the Kickstarter campaign read: "We will explore [Shirley's] relationships with men, tracing the connections from her first great heartbreak, when her father was pushed out of the family after the war, through her controversial affair with Lomax, to her two - ultimately doomed - marriages."

Who should I run into at Towersey festival but Ashley Hutchings, formerly of Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span, now of The Rainbow Chasers. He was also Collins' second husband. Turns out he's working on a project with his son, Blair Dunlop, to write an album of "proper" songs about football, which is, ahem, likely to have a strong emphasis on Tottenham Hotspur. Inevitably the conversation turned to the Shirley Collins movie.

"I heard about it on the Mark Radcliffe show," he said. "And when I looked at the Kickstarter campaign it was already up to £23,000 or so - they were going for £25,000, weren't they? I thought about whether I had a spare two grand but, well, I didn't. But the next time I looked they'd hit their target anyway, so that was good. Obviously I wish her the best and hope the movie works out well...

"But we're not in touch. It was a very acrimonious breakup: she was right, I was wrong."

Do you remember what the issues were?

Hutchings nodded.

"Women."

For a second I thought he was blaming women as a species for the failure of his marriage, but then realised that he was saying he had been unfaithful to Collins. There were a couple of beats of silence.

"I've been wondering whether I should expect a phone call from the filmmakers?" he said. "John Marshall, Shirley's first husband, died earlier this year, so I'm the only left now."

I said I thought it was quite likely they'd be in touch, given that they had already said on the Kickstarter page they were interested in exploring Collins's relationships. Plus there's the right of reply thing and they'd probably be interested in getting the whole picture before they decide what to leave on the cutting room floor and what to keep. But that's just my best guess...

"Well, I was thinking that I don't particularly want to do the interview because the situation with Shirley was so acrimonious by the end. But then I was talking to a friend about it and they pointed out that I didn't have to talk about everything if I didn't want to. I could talk about the good years and and focus on the positive things that I remember. I mean we were together for seven or eight years and she did some good work during that time.

"So I suppose I'm waiting for the phone call."

* You may also be interested in this from Towersey, about Lau. And this, about Blair Dunlop and his early dalliance with determinism.

* If you'd like to receive posts from this blog directly into your Facebook newsfeed, you could *like* its Facebook page and then use the drop-down menu to indicate that it's one of your "interests". This will enhance the possibility that you'll get them. You could also follow me on Twitter at @emma1hartley

Folkies! The Shirley Collins movie needs your help on Kickstarter before 22 July

Film-makers Tim Plester and Rob Curry shot a frankly brilliant morris dancing documentary, Way of the Morris, and if you haven't seen it, it's not too late. It's available to stream, for instance, on Blinkbox

But there is something else of theirs vying for your attention. They're hoping to make another folk-related movie: this time about Shirley Collins, who was absolutely central to the folk revivial of the 50s and 60s. And they're raising funds for it on Kickstarter, the crowdfunding site. It's become quite the thing recently – especially in tech circles and for film – and some people have raised unbelievably large amounts of money on it.

However, Tim and Rob are only trying to raise £25,000 and they are already more than half way there.

Watch this for a flavour of the film they would like to make.

There is also a series of interviews about Shirley Collins with people including the super-sharp comedian Stewart Lee and Graham Coxon of Blur, available to watch here.

I'm interested in a couple of things in particular about this story. First of all, Collins's music-collecting trip to the US with her lover Alan Lomax sounds like an epic tale, full of subterfuge, that needs to be told. It's as if Maude Karpeles were still alive to give us the low-down on Cecil Sharp – and correctly apportion the credit for the work that took place – but with a spot of George Clooney thrown in. 

The soundtrack to Oh Brother Where Art Thou, which is sometimes credited with having given impetus to the present pick-up in interest in folk music on both sides of the Atlantic, would not exist in the form that it does were it not for that trip across America by Collins and Lomax, for the simple reason that they collected some of the music.

And then there is the somewhat thorny issue of Collins having misplaced her voice for 35 years, which is something that I've heard Curry talk about in impassioned terms as a wrong that was done to her as a woman – and something that she has in common with Linda Thompson. Both of them, Curry contends with a feminist anger, were "chewed up and spat out" by the men of the folk rock scene. And perhaps that, too, would bear some examination.

"I'm not sure how much Shirley wants to talk about it," said Plester. "What is interesting is that she stopped doing what she was doing 35 years ago for personal reasons, private reasons. There is a medical term – dysphonia – for what happened, but neither Shirley nor Linda use it to describe what they've been through. And that is maybe part of what's been so paralysing about it. It happened to both of them: the two most important leading ladies of their day. Both were struck down in the same way: they literally found themselves voiceless.

"If nothing else, making this film is allowing Shirley to come back and embrace the limelight a bit. She played earlier this year at Union Chapel, which we filmed. And there is talk about recording again. Many people have come forward to express their love for Shirley and she's thriving on it.

"But I'm always wary of talking too much at the start of the film-making process about what's going to be in it, because things that seem like a great idea at the outset have also to be filmic in order to work. And there's no knowing how some things are going to turn out."

The thing about Kickstarter is that is they don't raise the full £25,000 by 22 July then they don't get any of the money. The target has to be hit before any of the funds are released. So think about making a contribution – and check out the rewards for doing so here – as well as forwarding this to anyone you know who might take an interest.

* Help crowdfund the Shirley Collins film here.

* If you'd like to receive posts from this blog directly into your Facebook newsfeed, you could *like* its Facebook page and then use the drop-down menu to indicate that it's one of your "interests". This will enhance the possibility that you'll get them. You could also follow me on Twitter at @emma1hartley

Tim Plester, Game of Thrones and the Shirley Collins movie

Some of you will remember Tim Plester's beautiful morris-dancing memoir Way of the Morris, which came out in 2011. If you haven't seen it yet, there's still time... 

Well, Tim and his habitual collaborator, Rob Curry, of Fifth Column Films, are making a new folk-themed movie, this one about the life of Shirley Collins, with her co-operation. Details are sparse at the moment. But Rob tells me a couple of things, which are that the trip she took to the deep south with Alan Lomax in 1959 will be central to the narrative, as will "the women chewed up and spat out by the men of the folk rock scene". There are a Facebook page and a Twitter account you can follow if you'd like.

Sounds like a lot of people will be very interested in that, which is just as well as there may be a crowd-funding offer along shortly.

Also, they filmed Shirley Collins' first gig in 30 years, which took place at Union Chapel the other week.

I was meandering around the idea of writing about this when lightning struck over the weekend: glued to a DVD boxset of Game of Thrones, season three, a familiar face appeared on screen.

Nice pic. For it was Tim Plester, who has several strings to his bow, bearing out the adage that every character actor known to British casting directors will have an opportunity to appear in Game of Thrones before it's done. He was playing someone called Black Walder and hanging out in a rather unsavoury castle whose strategic importance moved several of the central characters to organise a wedding there.

The Red Wedding.

If you haven't seen season three of Game of Thrones and intend to, I urge to look away now.

I pinged off a message on Facebook congratulating Tim on his immortality, by virtue of being in one of the series currently on screen that will surely outlive its actors. And then I was shaken to my very bones, to the sound of The Rains of Castamere (got to love a show with its own self-referential folk music).

For Tim's is the second last face on screen at the end of season three, episode nine. Catelyn Stark's is the last and she is spouting blood from her throat, having been, well... See for yourself.

 Why Tim, why?

"What can I say? I sometimes get a little stabby at weddings x" came the reply.

* I'd like to congratulate Tim and his partner on the recent arrival of a baby girl, which has put the brakes on pre-production of the Shirley Collins film from Tim's end.

* If you'd like to receive posts from this blog directly into your Facebook newsfeed, you could *like* its Facebook page and then use the drop-down menu to indicate that it's one of your "interests". This will enhance the possibility that you'll get them. You could also follow me on Twitter at @emma1hartley

The strange case of Martin and Eliza Carthy, a bar and a limited edition David Owen print

The artist David Owen would be seen by some as a bit niche. To get the most from his work you have to know a bit about folk culture. Hence Morrissey Dancing.

I was down at Cecil Sharp House the other day, watching the support act for a remarkable show that involved two people wearing cows' heads with flashing white lights for eyes and two morris dancing horses as you do (the band was called FLK and may have been distantly related to the KLF), when I ran into Tim Plester, who wrote and directed the film Way of the Morris.

We were admiring the show, as well as the mural in the main auditorium and discussing the cardboard cut out of a morris dancing stormtrooper in the foyer, which was by David Owen, when Plester looked momentarily bereft, then a touch agitated.

"I was given one of the Morrissey dancers by David Owen at last year's 5,000 morris dancers event at the South Bank Centre," he frowned. "It was big - life sized, I don't know whether you've seen them. And when we went for a drink afterwards I had to leave it outside the bar.

"When I re-emerged I couldn't see it initially. But then off in the distance I spotted it, tucked under the arm of Martin Carthy, who was walking away with Eliza. Probably it looked as if it had been abandoned... So the first family of folk half-inched my limited edition David Owen designed, life-sized Morrissey dancing cutout. I've never told anyone that story before.

"Obviously I don't begrudge them the artwork if they're putting it to good use," he mused. "But if it's just sitting around in a garage or something I'd quite like it back again really."

I tried to contact Eliza and her management on Twitter and email to ask about it. If there are any developments I'll let you know...

* If you'd like to receive posts from this blog directly into your Facebook newsfeed, you could *like* its Facebook page and then use the drop-down menu to indicate that it's one of your "interests". This will enhance the possibility that you'll get them. You could also follow me on Twitter @emma1hartley

Way of the Morris: morris on, big time

The bells, the bells... I was lucky enough to get my hands on a review copy of Way of the Morris, a documentary by actor and film-maker Tim Plester, which has just started doing the rounds at film festivals, and was recently at SXSW in Texas.

And what a treat it is. Unlike the recent Morris: a Life with Bells On, which never felt at ease with its subject (morris off), this is a beautifully crafted story by someone with a link to the morris tradition who doesn't allow it to stand in the way of good film-making.

Strong sense of place: tick. Photography to die for: tick. Good storyline: tick. In fact, it looks as if he may have done something very clever and made a film that will make morris dancing more mainstream just by showing it as it is. He's looking for distribution at the moment.

Plester, you see, is from Adderbury in Oxfordshire and his father is a morris man, although one furloughed by a damaged knee. But Plester junior lives in the city and the documentary is a journey with him through the history of morris dancing in his village without getting too bogged down in its origins. Instead it focuses on the hiatus in the town's morris tradition caused by the Great War, although as someone mutters during the course of the film, there was nothing much that was great about it. It wasn't until the folk rock revival of the early 70s that the troupe was started up again.

I suspect that part of the shimmer of the finished product is a reflection of the personal journey that Plester took over the course of its production. When I originally got a copy through the post there was a problem with the print, prompting an attempt to lay my hands on a better quality disc and a trip to West Finchley, where Plester lives.

"I've joined the Adderbury village morris men," he explained. "I'm dancing the morris now. And people keep asking when I'll be doing it next and whether I'll be filming it. But no. I mean, it's just become part of my life. Making the film was a part of my life too, but it's not my whole life."

There are many moments of intense beauty along the way, starting right at the beginning with a short animation about how the world was danced into existence by a fox, that reminded me of the beginning of Watership Down. This is echoed about halfway through by an exquisite long shot of a fox emerging from the woods and looking around, apparently staring down the camera despite the great distance and then disappearing back into the woods again.

Other things I loved about this movie included the shot of two sloping roofs next to each other while the script briefly mentioned the hypothesis about a connection between the Moors and the origins of morris. The word "pyramids" arrived just at the moment when the viewer realised that the rooves were a perfectly proportioned representation of them.

It also works as a kind of how-to guide for those potentially interested in taking up the morris, since Plester's dad does a satisfyingly practical explanation of why people tie knots in their hankies and most of the basics are covered in a pretty unstructured way. The men of the troupe are disarmingly charming and the hats - ohmygod - are great.

Slow paced but sharply edited, none of the multicultural references - notably to the Haka - seemed forced and there is also a cleverly presented morris dance to gentle techno, which is fun. It gets a bit purple and Shakespearean in places - sceptered isle, blessed Albion, totemic, blah - but never tips over entirely into sentiment.

Way of the Morris is showing next in Arizona, making me wonder whether it will eventually arrive in Britain garlanded with laurels from elsewhere (see below for British showings). It deserves awards and will probably get some. But more importantly I would think it will find itself an audience far beyond morris enthusiasts. And since the English will never be truly at ease with themselves until they're at ease with their traditions, this can only be a good thing.

* Arizona film festival, April 7
* Athens (Ohio) film festival, April 22-28. Exact date to be announced.
* May 2 preview showing at Sensoria in Sheffield.
* Tulepo film festival, Mississippi, May 12-14
* Sunday, May 15. Barbican cinema 1, London, 2pm. Screening with panel discussion afterwards. 
* London International Documentary Film Festival, May 13-28, date of screening to be announced.
* Sidmouth folk festival, July 29- August 5, date to be announced.

* If you'd like to receive posts from this blog directly into your Facebook newsfeed, you could *like* its Facebook page and then use the drop-down menu to indicate that it's one of your "interests". This will enhance the possibility that you'll get them. You could also follow me on Twitter @emma1hartley