From the archive: Smokers’ Corner

I'm driving to Glasgow today so I'll leave you with this.

In my previous post about the late James Leavey I mentioned a short film he featured in.

‘Smokers’ Corner’ was produced and directed by Sharon Peng, a student at Bournemouth University, in 2001.

It’s such a long time ago I can’t remember every detail but, as I recall, Sharon contacted Forest and said she was making a film about smokers and could we help.

The ‘help’ she was looking for was mostly contacts - people she could interview - so we put her in touch with several smokers and invited her to attend a party we were organising at Antony Worrall Thompson’s restaurant in Notting Hill (the appropriately named Notting Grill).

To be honest, given her extremely small budget and the fact that it was a student production, my expectations were fairly low.

Nevertheless, she came with her camera to Notting Grill (to interview AWT) and when a VHS tape arrived a few months later with a 24-minute film called ‘Smokers’ Corner’, I was keen to see what she had produced – and it was really good.

Sharon had interviewed smokers young and old, including James Leavey, AWT, and Forest researcher Judith Hatton who was by then well into her eighties, and still happily smoking.

The smoker-friendly film featured several other Forest supporters plus what I assumed were fellow students at Bournemouth.

The most prominent interviewee, however, was totally unexpected and nothing at all to do with Forest.

Somehow, Sharon had managed to persuade The Libertines’ Pete Doherty to take part, and his contributions were (and still are) absolutely priceless - charming, amusing, pretentious, and often all three at once!

(It should be noted that the film was shot before The Libertines enjoyed any great success. That happened in 2002. As for Doherty's relationship with Kate Moss, which featured on the front pages and propelled him to another level, media wise, that didn't begin until 2005 and lasted until 2007.)

I think I still have the tape in a box somewhere. I haven’t seen it for over 20 years, though, and as I no longer have a VHS player I couldn’t watch it even if I wanted to.

I’ve often thought about it, though, occasionally doubting that it really was Pete Doherty in the film. Did I imagine it?

Well, at the weekend I found the film online, on James Leavey’s YouTube channel. (I was searching for some information about James, for my previous post, and ended up going down a series of rabbit holes. This was one of them.)

It’s low resolution, sadly, so the picture isn’t great, but it’s only 24 minutes so I urge you to overlook the technical deficiencies and enjoy it as it is.

At the end Forest and I even get a credit, which I'm rather chuffed about.

The film is bittersweet because several participants are no longer alive, and in the intervening years Pete Doherty has had his demons but, watching this, you can't help but like him.

So if you have a spare moment do watch it.

As for Sharon Peng, I've no idea what she's doing today, but I hope she's enjoying whatever path her studies, and her film, took her. She clearly had a talent for film production and direction.

I do wonder, though, whether today’s students would be allowed to make a similar film, or would the concept be rejected as too 'pro-smoking'?

To view it click here or in the image below.

Comments

[RdM]

Thanks very much for the video, I've saved it and shall be sending to friends, along with links to this and your previous referenced post, both fulsome with other links. Very well done.

The idiosyncratic slow countdown and moments of black intro.

I'd love to see (or make) a transcript.

There are so many pertinent conversational gems in the film.

Cheers!