Andrew Kötting discusses 'By Our Selves'
“After reading Iain Sinclair’s Edge of the Orison, and making Swandown (2012) together, it seemed a perfectly reasonable thing to do. Besides, I like dressing up.” This is how the writer, filmmaker and artist Andrew Kötting begins discussing his latest film, By Our Selves.
The film documents a four-day walk made by celebrated English poet John Clare. Exactly 150 years after his death, actor Toby Jones, writer Ian Sinclair and a desolate Straw Bear follow in his footsteps by embarking on the same journey and soon come across a doctor, a wizard and a man known as Macgillivray.
Perceived more as a 90-minute walk than a spectator film, By Our Selves explores the melancholy and experimental route of Clare in this unique docu-drama highlighting one of Sinclair’s.
“I didn’t know anything about John Clare until I read Iain’s [Edge of the Orison] book about ten years ago,” recalls Kötting. “It was very similar to working on the smaller budget projects, or projects that involved my family and friends such as This Our Still Lifeand In The Wake of a Dead. It was exhilarating, reassuring and ‘easy.’
As well as writing and filmmaking, Kötting is Professor of Time Based Media at The University for the Creative Arts in Canterbury. After graduating from The Slade in London, he continued to make shorts, as well as develop several art projects. “My academic colleagues have always been very supportive, as have my students and all the technicians. I have a lot to thank them for, also the dinner ladies,” says Kötting.
Actor Toby Jones was keen to get on board from the beginning. “Gareth Evans, the writer and curator, encouraged me to meet Toby and then Toby encouraged me to meet Freddie,” says Kötting. Jones embodies the role of Clare as he takes the walk and marks his latest collaboration with his father, veteran actor Freddie Jones. “Toby is a remarkable human being and also quite short, a bit like John Clare and his father. I loved the idea of Toby being ventriloquized by his father.”
Kötting himself stars alongside both Toby and Freddie Jones, although it may not be apparent to viewers as he is dressed as a bear for the entirety of the film. “Staying alive inside that straw bear costume on a particularly hot summer day last year was very difficult.”
While the bear suit may have been the biggest challenge, the filmmaker asserts that it was by far a reward working with his collaborative team. “Nearly everybody involved in the project contributed a chapter; it is a bit like a Haynes User’s Manual to the work.” Kötting went on to add, “Our other actor David [Aylward] – is an exceptional human being, he is a performer, drummer, driver and writer and MacGillivray is an enigma with a voice like a phantom.”
The funding for By Our Selves grew out of a £15,000 Grants For the Arts Award, which proposed an 80-mile walk from Epping Forrest to Helpston in Northamptonshire. Kötting explains, “The film grew out of a response to the performances and the support of friends, family and interests because of a £20k Kickstarter campaign.”
The black and white setting, Kötting confirms, was an auspicious decision. “Black and white seemed to iron out a lot of the creases when it came to marrying up footage.” He adds, “It also worked as a counterpoint to the colour super 8 footage of my daughter Eden, dressed as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz.”
By Our Selves is an unconventional British tale that goes the extra mark, thanks to Kötting. His exploration of Clare’s Journey Out of Essexand Sinclair’s Edge of the Orison comes full circle and pays homage to two of English literature’s greatest writers.