Friday 18 November 2011.
3am, Koln. Can’t sleep. My body clock is upside down. I’m listening for the millionth time to my CD of Haydn’s Keyboard Concerto in F Major played by Ronald Brautigam. I almost can’t believe I am almost through this long-planned series of screenings of The Boy Mir. It began almost two weeks ago with a screening at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC. That was at the invitation of a South Asian event (Annual South Asian Literary and Theatre Arts festival) which was very impressive and comprised two days of performance – beginning with a screening of The Boy Mir. The Natural History Museum (of Night at the Museum fame) was the venue. In their excellent cinema, we had a sparely attended but well received showing. It was a real whistle-stop as, after only 30 minutes of Q&A, I had to run for a plane home. I had been flown in on Delta who I have to say were great but they weren’t going to wait for me so it was all at double-quick speed to get on board and home – for the Leonardo Live shoot. I’ve talked about this in another blog so suffice to say once that was done (phew!) it was farewell to my patient and supportive family and back to Heathrow and onto a plane to Washington again. I had asked an excellent PR company (PlanetPix) in New York to organise some BOY MIR screenings for political purposes – to get the film seen by those who make the decisions about billions of dollars and thousands of lives. On a beautiful Autumnal day in DC, we held our first screening at the fancy new building housing the United States Institute of Peace.
In their own words, USIP is our country's global conflict management center. Created by Congress to be independent and nonpartisan, we work to prevent, mitigate and resolve international conflict without resorting to violence. An ideal place to show the film. It is indeed a beautiful new building just near the Lincoln Memorial. The screening was well-attended by aid workers and grant-funders…and USIP ‘experts’ of various types. They seemed to enjoy the film and the subsequent Q&A. Then Planetpix took me downtown to the National Press Club. In their own words: The National Press Club, a private club for journalists and communications professionals, has been a Washington institution for more than a century. It is also a world-class conference and meeting facility that hosts thousands of events each year for sophisticated clients from around the globe. And while these are the Club’s functions, its mission is to be The World’s Leading Professional Organization for Journalists. It is a social and business organization dedicated to supporting the ongoing improvement of the profession of journalism. It’s a great place, actually – with some wonderful, iconographic photos on the walls. Along the corridor are also many world flags and I was very proud that the occasion of my visit was used to present (from the Afghanistan Embassy) an Afghan flag to stand among them. I think Afghan journalists are supremely brave and deserve every recognition. As for my own press conference, it was a bit quiet but I did do a couple of TV interviews – who knows?… It was the eve of a three-day weekend so not the best time, in hindsight, to be asking journalists in. That night, I had a wonderful dinner with the inspiring and, frankly, brilliant head of the Afghanistan section of VOA (Voice of America).
Friday – another lovely day outside but I simply couldn’t break away from trying to whittle down the 200+ emails I had to deal with. I’d like to say I’m a victim of my own success but I’m not sure it’s really that…. I also had to work on the Leonardo Live re-edit. I did make time to walk down with a good buddy of mine to the war memorials including the recently restored First World War memorial. Today was Veterans Day so there was quite a crowd. I was wearing my poppy (as we do in the UK – commemorating the poppy fields in France in which so many men died) and I suddenly burst out laughing: all of yesterday, talking about Mir and Afghanistan, I’d been wearing a poppy ! Most folk here don’t know about our UK tradition so what were they thinking?? That I was an advert for Afghanistan’s no 1 crop?!
That evening, I went to Symphony Hall to see cellist Gautier Capucon. He was fabulous and I stopped by backstage to say hi. His cello piece in IN SEARCH OF HAYDN will, I’m sure, be among many people’s favourites.
Saturday: I worked all morning and then took a lunch break to go to a local cinema to watch The Drive. I don’t know why I do it to myself – it was crass, violent & pointless. If they had given the budget to schoolkids in Afghanistan they’d have done so much more good. In the evening, Planetpix had again done an excellent job of organising a big screening of MIR – this time in a fine cinema at the George Washington University. It was noteworthy for so many Afghans that turned up. Well dressed, handsome, affluent – just as their brothers & sisters in Afghanistan could and should be. For me, a particular treat was sharing the stage with Christina Lamb, one of the best journalists around. If you haven’t read SEWING CIRCLES OF HERAT, you should. Luckily for me, she liked the film. Phew! A lot of positive reaction…but, as so often, very few donations. Website-based donation simply doesn’t work. I keep expecting at least one wealthy person to send in a few thousands dollars but it simply hasn’t happened in all the screenings I have had over the past year…
Sunday – train to NY – had an important meeting with the distributors of LEONARDO LIVE and then made my way to a lovely building overlooking Central Park where I was the guest speaker at a fundraiser for Afghan women. Showed 20 minutes of clips and talked for an hour. Went down very well. Best of all though was the delicious Afghan food – people always laugh when I say one of the reasons I go back is for the food – especially the kebabs … but it’s true.
Monday – Pittsburgh. Oh dear. 11 hours to get there to do a Q&A at a cinema. Travelled up to the cinema and was surprised to arrive at the door and see a poster for me to do the Q&A three days earlier: they got my day wrong! Audience who turned up today – 0! Well, two old dears finally waddled in , hesitated until I told them what a great film it was (they didn’t know I was the director) and they sat all alone in a 300-seater and watched the film. My sense of professionalism did not extend to me sticking around to do a Q&A. I’ll be looking for compensation for that cock-up.
Tuesday and almost at the end of my trek now. As wet and miserable a day as yesterday was gloriously sunny. I gave a talk & screening at the University of Pittsburgh. Some very nice folk who are at their Institute for Human Security. Then a mad dash for the plane home.
Weds- into Sky for the start of the Haydn post production – luckily I have a star post-production editor who can get on with it all alone at the early stage so I could go home. Only to leave 4.30 am next day to Berlin.
Berlin holds such a special place in my heart that I am always so happy to be here. The city always has the same central European air that I remember from my visits as a child. Such a grand, sad, energetic, beautiful city. I’m here because the Franco-German channel ARTE are holding a press screening of MIR. Of all the braodcasters to whom I pre-sold the film, ARTE is actually the biggest coup – and then to get picked for their number one doc slot too is brilliant. And then the fact that they are pushing it makes me even happier. They have hired a wonderful cinema called the Babylon (where, funnily enough, I once came to show ESCAPE FROM LUANDA). I met my ARTE commissioning editor and we hug in relief that we actually managed to win the many fights along the way to get the film through. I won’t bore you with it but, trust me, it was like walking through a field of thorns at times. She has become one of my favourite all-time TV folk – because she believes in the programmes and programme-makers. And, trust me, many don’t. A decent crowd gathers inside – there must be thirty or so people in attendance – a very good turn-out, including the former German ambassador to Pakistan. It’s so easy to put on these events and for them to be ill-attended (well, like the National Press Club in Washington which only saw a handful turn up). The film kicks off on the big screen and it looks great. I make a run for a meeting to do with a classical music project (but that’s another story, folks) and then get back in time for the end of the film and the Q&A. Everyone stays and are very keen to ask questions and listen to the answers. The proof will be in what they eventually write but they seem really approving of the film. I have to add that this is a special moment for me as my sister and her lovely friend who both live in Berlin have come too. I manage to woof down half a bagel before my commissioning editor and I dash to the airport for a 3pm flight to Koln. There I give a talk to a class of film students interested in making political films…’Don’t’ I tell them. ‘make “political films” but tell great stories and let your politics come through the way you tell them, the choices you make, the questions you ask, the shots you frame, the characters you choose”. I find I talk non-stop for 45 minutes – either I’m good at this or have become a bore who likes the sound of my own voice….a bit of both probably! After this we head to the Forum Ludwig – a nice cinema next to the staggeringly impressive cathedral. Their first film ever (five or so years ago) was IN SEARCH OF MOZART (can you believe?!) and so it’s nice to finally visit them. This is a somewhat unofficial screening for WDR (the German channel that is showing the film six months after ARTE) . Again, it is decently attended and well-received. What I learnt from this screening is that the only way to extricate donations towards my desire of paying for a new, well-educated, teacher for Mir’s school is to actually have buckets held out by the doors on the way out of the cinema. Asking folk to visit the website fails. Handing out flyers fails. Two students jumped up after this screening and made paper hats from newspaper and held them out to everyone leaving – and raised 150 euros in one go. I am delighted..and somewhat peeved as I have had so many screenings that I could have done that at – and didn’t. I should have learnt from the Church – they know how to raise cash. Pass the tray round or hold a bucket out and get the cash from people before they leave the building. Oh well… Live & Learn.
Fri – Back to Britain…and it’s not quite over yet. In the afternoon, I give a talk about documentary film-making to some young kids at Brighton College (rapidly becoming accepted as one of the top schools in the UK) and then, after dinner and general fun & games at home, I drive off for my last Mir event: a conference on Afghanistan to be held at Marlborough College, an hour or two west of London.
The event on Saturday turns out to be fascinating (and well-run). I attend excellent presentations today from Bijan Omrani, Rob Johnson and Frank Ledwidge. Mostly concerned with history and contemporary military failures. The event is very well attended and the screening of MIR at the end of the afternoon goes very well. I hang around for a pleasant dinner and then head home, arriving about 1am.
Sun – I’m with my family now and I’m so delighted this mini-Mir-madness is over….It’s time to ease back a little and hope the films take on a life of its own….My golf swing has become way too rusty…
Oh shame…just heard we were not shortlisted for an Oscar. Lots of other omissions too such as (amazingly) Senna and The Interrupters. The selection committee like old-school simple emotional narratives it seems. I’d been told MIR stood no chance but I’d lived in hope for the past few months – it would have been great publicity. Well, we tried….and, on that, one has to say we’ve tried our best for the last year. We said we’d push it for this twelve months (at our own expense) and that time has now ended….Let’s see what happens…Maybe in 6 or so months from now we’ll be able to judge what impact, if any, the film had had….
Wednesday 23 November 2011
Monday 14 November 2011
Leonardo Live
Wednesday 9th November 2011
I’ve been counting down the days and, finally, it is done. LEONARDO LIVE has passed. This is the morning after the night before. I don’t think I’ve ever known such a stressful project – not Afghanistan, Nigeria, Angola, Brazil, nowhere. But we made it – on TV and in 41 cinemas across the UK, we had an unbroken 73 minute show live from the National Gallery. It is two years since I first thought it would be nice to share the privilege of being at great exhibitions after-hours with a wider audience, i.e, in this case, a cinema audience. I always recognised that the Leonardo would be a good first show to do but I had no idea at all it would be such a perfect choice.
The press has been utterly extraordinary – ‘the greatest exhibition I’d ever seen’, ‘the most wondrous exhibition ever’ and so on. It really helped achieve a remarkable success – 95% sold out. I had originally thought to do a live screening to kids at midday in cinemas but the cinema chain that I managed to bring on board decided, for them, it had to be for an adult (and paying) audience. Then I had to get a broadcaster interested and the enthusiastic and ambitious SkyArts came on board. It wasn’t quite that straightforward, of course, but suffice to say without Sky there would have been no project. Luckily the National Gallery were open to the idea and I was lucky enough to hook up with the one person with the insight, energy and sheer brilliant person skills to make this happen. Gosh, looking back, there were so many hurdles – access, cabling, lighting, so on and so forth. But we just kept moving forward small step by small step.. It seems that no-one had filmed live from the gallery before (though that seems hard to believe) but certainly from the basement that is the Sainsbury Wing it seemed impossible. We tested with radio frequency cameras (which worked OK) but, in the end, thanks to the advice of the live production team we worked with (Leopard), we went for cabling. I can still remember spending most of my two week holiday in France dealing with that on the phone; it seemed impossible. But, again thanks to our National Gallery colleague, we somehow were able to lay cables into the roof of the gallery space at the same time as they were building the rooms for the exhibition.
When you remember this is the biggest exhibition in years and includes paintings & drawings worth not millions but billions, the fact they let little old us in is a thing of wonder! At the same time as this was on-going, there were satellite links to book, press releases and posters to check, picture clearances to be sought (and that is another massive task). Above all perhaps, there was the creative process to engage in: what is the film going to show? How? What? We decided very early to have two presenters (Tim Marlow and Mariella Frostrup) and a mix of pre-recorded background films as well as live talk with intelligent guests in front of the paintings. That basic premise never changed though maybe too many people were involved in the scripting at different stages – all wanting to do a good job but sometimes you need one clear voice to drive it forwards. This was tricky because the live script had to be pre-written and the pre-recorded script had to work around it. I’d have expected it to be the other way around so that was a long, difficult process. The default of ‘Live’ folk is quick, quick, quick whereas I lean to taking more time to let people look and learn. The best way on a show like this is probably somewhere in-between. Anyway, the day dawned finally and the 70-odd crew made their way to the gallery. A road outside was shut off to allow the trucks to park and set up their satellite links. Mariella and Tim came in and did their make-up, rehearsals, and so on. The minutes ticked by until finally at 6.40 we went live to cinemas with a special 20 minute (cinema-only) intro of fun facts and then at 7pm we went live to both cinemas and on TV. The next 75 minutes were nail-biting. Tim & Mariella were super, as were most of the guests. The technology worked – my word, I can still remember the endless, endless hours spent on discussing the technology to get these signals out live. Hats off & thanks again to Leopard Films for working so hard to get the show up in the air live and bouncing back down again to cinemas and TVs around the country. Along the way, we had an autocue failure and a camera failure but, again, that’s live TV I guess.
The point is what did the folk in the cinemas and front rooms think? And that answer came back to me very quickly – they loved it! They forgave the glitches because they just loved seeing the paintings in huge HD, they enjoyed hearing the background, they enjoyed the guests. Some cinemas immediately rebooked it for a repeat showing. SkyArts’ viewing figures were, for them, huge. And everyone said that this certainly had been a gamble but it had proved to be a gamble that had paid off. The National has already asked me what exhibition should we do next! And I have meetings with four other major London institutions and a couple of international galleries too…This could run and run. If I have anything to do with it, you need never miss a major exhibition again!!
I’ve been counting down the days and, finally, it is done. LEONARDO LIVE has passed. This is the morning after the night before. I don’t think I’ve ever known such a stressful project – not Afghanistan, Nigeria, Angola, Brazil, nowhere. But we made it – on TV and in 41 cinemas across the UK, we had an unbroken 73 minute show live from the National Gallery. It is two years since I first thought it would be nice to share the privilege of being at great exhibitions after-hours with a wider audience, i.e, in this case, a cinema audience. I always recognised that the Leonardo would be a good first show to do but I had no idea at all it would be such a perfect choice.
The press has been utterly extraordinary – ‘the greatest exhibition I’d ever seen’, ‘the most wondrous exhibition ever’ and so on. It really helped achieve a remarkable success – 95% sold out. I had originally thought to do a live screening to kids at midday in cinemas but the cinema chain that I managed to bring on board decided, for them, it had to be for an adult (and paying) audience. Then I had to get a broadcaster interested and the enthusiastic and ambitious SkyArts came on board. It wasn’t quite that straightforward, of course, but suffice to say without Sky there would have been no project. Luckily the National Gallery were open to the idea and I was lucky enough to hook up with the one person with the insight, energy and sheer brilliant person skills to make this happen. Gosh, looking back, there were so many hurdles – access, cabling, lighting, so on and so forth. But we just kept moving forward small step by small step.. It seems that no-one had filmed live from the gallery before (though that seems hard to believe) but certainly from the basement that is the Sainsbury Wing it seemed impossible. We tested with radio frequency cameras (which worked OK) but, in the end, thanks to the advice of the live production team we worked with (Leopard), we went for cabling. I can still remember spending most of my two week holiday in France dealing with that on the phone; it seemed impossible. But, again thanks to our National Gallery colleague, we somehow were able to lay cables into the roof of the gallery space at the same time as they were building the rooms for the exhibition.
When you remember this is the biggest exhibition in years and includes paintings & drawings worth not millions but billions, the fact they let little old us in is a thing of wonder! At the same time as this was on-going, there were satellite links to book, press releases and posters to check, picture clearances to be sought (and that is another massive task). Above all perhaps, there was the creative process to engage in: what is the film going to show? How? What? We decided very early to have two presenters (Tim Marlow and Mariella Frostrup) and a mix of pre-recorded background films as well as live talk with intelligent guests in front of the paintings. That basic premise never changed though maybe too many people were involved in the scripting at different stages – all wanting to do a good job but sometimes you need one clear voice to drive it forwards. This was tricky because the live script had to be pre-written and the pre-recorded script had to work around it. I’d have expected it to be the other way around so that was a long, difficult process. The default of ‘Live’ folk is quick, quick, quick whereas I lean to taking more time to let people look and learn. The best way on a show like this is probably somewhere in-between. Anyway, the day dawned finally and the 70-odd crew made their way to the gallery. A road outside was shut off to allow the trucks to park and set up their satellite links. Mariella and Tim came in and did their make-up, rehearsals, and so on. The minutes ticked by until finally at 6.40 we went live to cinemas with a special 20 minute (cinema-only) intro of fun facts and then at 7pm we went live to both cinemas and on TV. The next 75 minutes were nail-biting. Tim & Mariella were super, as were most of the guests. The technology worked – my word, I can still remember the endless, endless hours spent on discussing the technology to get these signals out live. Hats off & thanks again to Leopard Films for working so hard to get the show up in the air live and bouncing back down again to cinemas and TVs around the country. Along the way, we had an autocue failure and a camera failure but, again, that’s live TV I guess.
The point is what did the folk in the cinemas and front rooms think? And that answer came back to me very quickly – they loved it! They forgave the glitches because they just loved seeing the paintings in huge HD, they enjoyed hearing the background, they enjoyed the guests. Some cinemas immediately rebooked it for a repeat showing. SkyArts’ viewing figures were, for them, huge. And everyone said that this certainly had been a gamble but it had proved to be a gamble that had paid off. The National has already asked me what exhibition should we do next! And I have meetings with four other major London institutions and a couple of international galleries too…This could run and run. If I have anything to do with it, you need never miss a major exhibition again!!
Monday 7 November 2011
Sunday 6th November - Leonardo Live
Back in the UK (after a very nice screening at the Smithsonian in Washington DC) in an edit suite in London. Preparing some short documentary inserts for Tuesday’s big event: LEONARDO LIVE. I can’t honestly say it has been as much fun getting this far as making MIR or HAYDN – it’s a helluva lot easier working in a small team whereas Leonardo Live has about 100 folk involved. But the team I’ve employed to do the live production – Leopard Films – are doing a fine job and it should be a great night. I always knew there’d be an audience in the cinemas and just about all 40 cinemas that are taking it live have sold out! And I hope SkyArts get a good audience too (they are showing it live as well). Above all, the paintings – all 9 of them – will be shown in HD on big and small screens throughout the country. And soon the world. Wonderful. Mind you, I say all this two days before the show and I am most certainly not counting any chickens! Trucks, cables, dozens and dozens of crew, satellite links, radio frequencies, 600 guests to the preview night itself, egos, stress, adrenaline, excitement, fear….and, above all, the paintings. I just hope they don’t get it swamped in all the technology. Well, we’ll see…or you will if you watch it on TV or in the cinema: just know while you watching no-one is more scared witless than me. And if the show seems to go OK I want us all to raise a glass at 8.30pm UK time and toast Leonardo da Vinci and the rockets he first drew which ultimately put satellites in the sky. (LATER: started editing (three suites) at 11.30am - ended at 2.30am next morning. Madness. All I can say is you had better bloody well watch the show now after all this effort!!).
Wednesday 2nd November - The Boy Mir, Frontline Club, London.
So here we are, the day after the night before. More4 showed THE BOY MIR – TEN YEARS IN AFGHANISTAN last night . After all the to-ing and fro-ing, the contracting, the hustling, the 70-page security protocols that went back and forth, the film has come and gone. Ten years ago, it would have been on Channel 4 and watched by 2 million. More 4 – it’s 200,000. Then again, in the cinemas, you’ll get 2000, maybe 20,000…So it’s a rough old game. But it’s on catch-up and will be repeated and folk are talking on social media about buying the DVD…so who knows? There is so much stuff out there, so much competition on your and my time, that having anyone see your film at all is a minor miracle. But still, one can’t help but feel a little low – I really want people to see the film and, moreover, think they should. I write this on a plane to Washington (very nice flight on Delta I have to say) where I’m screening at the Smithsonian. A couple of days earlier I had a nice screening at the best club in London, the Frontline Club in Paddington… it was the first time I felt I really benefitted from writing a blog – someone at the club had read how a cinema recently did not feel it could give me a free pudding with a coffee (despite my travelling at my expense for 4 hours to get there) and so the lovely lady at the Frontline gave me a free dinner! Mind you, the event was sold out and I could have done with a fee too. How are film-makers supposed to make ends meet? I don’t get it. Anyways, here I am flying merrily to Washington DC for another screening. I'm only staying a night but the organisation has provided the flight in business so it's all very comfortable (albeit via Atlanta) and I have got a huge amount of work done. I'm one of those rare folk who look forward to long flights as I get so much done....
Wednesday 2 November 2011
Leonardo Live - One week to go....
Just one week to go now…. I can still remember the moment, two years ago, when I thought wouldn’t it be great to share the privilege of filming so often in galleries with a national and indeed international cinema audience. I love and respect what SkyArts do but there will undoubtedly be something special about seeing paintings in HD on a big screen. The Met Opera, NT Live and others have paved the way and now, 101 weeks later, here we are about to launch a global first – LEONARDO LIVE.
Presenters Mariella Frostrup and the art historian and director of the White Cube gallery, Tim Marlow, will be joined by a cast of celebrated guests from the worlds of art, fashion, theatre and film to bring a unique behind-the-scenes look at this incredible exhibition. Guests will include the actress Fiona Shaw, Creative Director of the Royal Opera House and dancer Deborah Bull, the musician Nitin Sawhney and photographer Eamonn McCabe who will be discussing key aspects of Leonardo’s life and work. Pre-recorded films will also offer insight into Leonardo’s biography and the individual paintings. Bringing together the largest ever number of Leonardo’s rare surviving paintings; it will include international loans never before seen in the UK.
This is the first ever time that both versions of the Virgin of the Rocks, from the Louvre and the National Gallery, will be viewed together. The Salvator Mundi will also be featured in the programme, the first rediscovered Leonardo in 100 years which was once sold for £45 and is now worth an estimated £125m.
This pioneering simulcast, created and produced by PhilGrabskyFilms.com in association with LeopardFilms for SkyArts seeks to give the widest possible audience the opportunity to experience this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition.
I remember as a child living near Manchester that the idea of going to a gallery in London was an impossibility. Now we can bring the gallery to you – of course on TV but also in cinemas. I have been making documentaries now for 25 years and, in many ways, it has become much, much tougher than ever before to do anything valuable and crafted. I specialise in arts, classical music, social docs and history – in sum, four of the hardest areas to be in. I still remember the Head of BBC2 in the late 90s telling me that arts & history were dead on TV. ‘Get into reality shows’ I was told. Well, 120 Tim Marlow shows later, two box office successes with IN SEARCH OF MOZART & IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN (and next January IN SEARCH OF HAYDN) and many more including, recently, THE BOY MIR – TEN YEARS IN AFGHANISTAN shows it can be done. But it’s hard, at times seemingly impossible. Most at fault have been the broadcasters who worried there was no audience for content. I knew they were wrong – I see the crowds at concerts and art galleries, etc. You all know it too from the areas you report on. But change is in the air: my cinema screenings are full – LEONARDO LIVE is sold out across 40 screens in the UK. Worldwide it may play in dozens of countries – and it is the first of a series of such films I intend to do. My Afghan film (also, in its way, about human creativity and potential) THE BOY MIR has played in dozens of UK cinemas and will continue to do so. One day here, one week there. It’s not commercial but the films are seen. Digital technology in only a handful of years has changed everything. The VOD revolution has also begun. If you love art and are willing to look out for it you can find it. The downside, of course, is that fewer folk stumble across things. THE BOY MIR tonight plays on More4 – and will get maybe 200,000 viewers – my films in the 90s on BBC2, ITV and C4 got 2 to 3 million.
I hope you get the chance to see LEONARDO LIVE next Tuesday – it has been extremely difficult to do but we are about to bring the wonders of Leonardo on small and big screen in HD to viewers from Bolton to Brisbane, Reading to Rio. I’m exhausted by it all but I hope on the 9th November I’ll feel it was worthwhile and I hope you will too.
Best wishes, Phil Grabsky
PhilGrabskyFilms.com & Seventh Art Productions
Presenters Mariella Frostrup and the art historian and director of the White Cube gallery, Tim Marlow, will be joined by a cast of celebrated guests from the worlds of art, fashion, theatre and film to bring a unique behind-the-scenes look at this incredible exhibition. Guests will include the actress Fiona Shaw, Creative Director of the Royal Opera House and dancer Deborah Bull, the musician Nitin Sawhney and photographer Eamonn McCabe who will be discussing key aspects of Leonardo’s life and work. Pre-recorded films will also offer insight into Leonardo’s biography and the individual paintings. Bringing together the largest ever number of Leonardo’s rare surviving paintings; it will include international loans never before seen in the UK.
This is the first ever time that both versions of the Virgin of the Rocks, from the Louvre and the National Gallery, will be viewed together. The Salvator Mundi will also be featured in the programme, the first rediscovered Leonardo in 100 years which was once sold for £45 and is now worth an estimated £125m.
This pioneering simulcast, created and produced by PhilGrabskyFilms.com in association with LeopardFilms for SkyArts seeks to give the widest possible audience the opportunity to experience this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition.
I remember as a child living near Manchester that the idea of going to a gallery in London was an impossibility. Now we can bring the gallery to you – of course on TV but also in cinemas. I have been making documentaries now for 25 years and, in many ways, it has become much, much tougher than ever before to do anything valuable and crafted. I specialise in arts, classical music, social docs and history – in sum, four of the hardest areas to be in. I still remember the Head of BBC2 in the late 90s telling me that arts & history were dead on TV. ‘Get into reality shows’ I was told. Well, 120 Tim Marlow shows later, two box office successes with IN SEARCH OF MOZART & IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN (and next January IN SEARCH OF HAYDN) and many more including, recently, THE BOY MIR – TEN YEARS IN AFGHANISTAN shows it can be done. But it’s hard, at times seemingly impossible. Most at fault have been the broadcasters who worried there was no audience for content. I knew they were wrong – I see the crowds at concerts and art galleries, etc. You all know it too from the areas you report on. But change is in the air: my cinema screenings are full – LEONARDO LIVE is sold out across 40 screens in the UK. Worldwide it may play in dozens of countries – and it is the first of a series of such films I intend to do. My Afghan film (also, in its way, about human creativity and potential) THE BOY MIR has played in dozens of UK cinemas and will continue to do so. One day here, one week there. It’s not commercial but the films are seen. Digital technology in only a handful of years has changed everything. The VOD revolution has also begun. If you love art and are willing to look out for it you can find it. The downside, of course, is that fewer folk stumble across things. THE BOY MIR tonight plays on More4 – and will get maybe 200,000 viewers – my films in the 90s on BBC2, ITV and C4 got 2 to 3 million.
I hope you get the chance to see LEONARDO LIVE next Tuesday – it has been extremely difficult to do but we are about to bring the wonders of Leonardo on small and big screen in HD to viewers from Bolton to Brisbane, Reading to Rio. I’m exhausted by it all but I hope on the 9th November I’ll feel it was worthwhile and I hope you will too.
Best wishes, Phil Grabsky
PhilGrabskyFilms.com & Seventh Art Productions
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