Surrey filmmaker Jewers celebrates Shakespeare with six shorts

BAFTA nominated film maker and Surrey resident Jack Jewers has made six short films to celebrate the 400th anniversary, on November 8, of the publication of the great Bard Shakespeare's first folio (collection of plays).

'Folio 400' is being celebrated throughout the country next week and Jack's films, which are narrated by stars such as Tom Baker, Cerys Matthews and Eliza Butterworth, will be screened in London on that date.

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One of them - 'Lovers and Madmen', narrated by former Dr Who, Baker, notably saw Jack send a speech from 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream' along with a portrait of Shakespeare into space via a weather balloon.

The resulting short features stunning visuals of 'Shakespeare' floating across earth’s horizon against the black void of outer space.

Each film is based on Shakespeare’s most popular speeches and poems and uses his 400 year old words as a lens through which to navigate today's world.

"Everything that has been happening to us in the past few years of upheaval – mass disease, concerns about immigration, protest, conflict in Europe, a growing desire to challenge authority and speak truth to power – was also happening in 1623 when the First Folio was published," said Jack.

"In 1623 English migrants were going in boats across the sea to build a new life in North America.

"There was an outbreak of plague. Europe was entrenched in the Thirty Years War. And the ongoing explosion of trade, immigration and diplomacy meant that news of global events would have reached Shakespeare’s ears faster and faster.

"Just as today the 24-hour news cycle has us feeling our global neighbours are closer than ever, so it must have felt for Shakespeare 400 years ago," he added.

"Now, as then, society is deeply divided. The parallels are uncanny and Shakespeare’s words are fresher now than ever before in their ability to speak powerfully to our own contemporary lives.”

His film 'St Crispin’s Day' depicts Ukrainian civilians in bomb-stricken Kyiv alongside the “Band of Brothers” speech from Henry V, performed by Eliza Butterworth (The Last Kingdom, A Town Called Malice).

Meanwhile, 'The Strangers Case' uses real footage of refugees at sea and is voiced by Crystal Clarke (Sanderton, Empire of Light).

BBC presenter Cerys Matthews narrates 'They That Have Power to Hurt' with Sonnet 94, while Amber Anderson (Emma, Peaky Blinders) narrates the firm 'Our Revels Now Are Ended' taken from the Tempest.

In the Jewers short 'All the World’s A Stage', the director invited international university students to narrate the famous speech from 'As You Like It' in their first languages, as an exploration of British multiculturalism in the face of ever-changing immigration laws and to celebrate the universality of Shakespeare’s words.

Details of the event in London on November 8 can be found HERE, while the films will also be available to watch at home on Jack’s film website HERE.

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