JOHNSON PEPPERWOOD FROM BOSUN TOWN
The story of a nervous collapse and descent into madness, following an unnamed con artist who is manipulated into a dangerous and unhealthy position with a gang of vicious crooks. Forced into a near-impossible task of tracking down a mysterious and elusive figure who goes by the name of Johnson Pepperwood, they become lost in a nightmare of visions, voices and words.
Exploring issues of the corruption and loss of self, death, and then a magical re-birth, the film experimentally blends found and vintage social documentary footage spanning eight decades and four continents, with projections, drawings and mixed media collage, in an intense, blackly comic worldwide journey. "You know what life is? It's your last chance. A day never goes by again."
An eclectically-scored experimental documystery, which wonderfully subverts convention and expectation.
2018 / 92 mins / Standard and Super 8mm, 35mm still and slide, Full HD 1080p, Mini-DV / B&W and colour / 16:9
Producer: Joseph Dethick
Director: Jim Dethick
Screenplay: Jim Dethick
Camera: Joseph Dethick
Editors: Joseph Dethick, Jim Dethick
Sound Design and Mix: Jim Dethick
Music: Jim Dethick, Joseph Dethick, Max Hall, Vivid Bit Technology (Ed Hill, Lorraine Hill, Rich Phillips)
Chapter Titles and Artwork: Jim Dethick
Character Voices: Jim Dethick (All)
PREMIERE - Film Unit Cinema, Sheffield University, 2018
SCREENED - Op-Tronica Beeps & Loops Festival, Sheffield, 2019