Director David Sington on the incredible 'The Fear of 13'

After 23 years on Death Row, Nick, a convicted murderer, requests that his execution be carried out. His extraordinary story is the basis for The Fear of 13 – the latest film from documentary filmmaker David Sington. “This is pure narrative,” he explains, “it’s not an issue film.”

Sington has been an award-winning documentarian, producer, and filmmaker for over two decades, filming all over the world – from the Antarctic to the Amazon – and gaining critical acclaim with films The Flaw (2007) and In the Shadow of the Moon (2007), which won the Audience Award at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

Now, Sington has taken on his biggest challenge and most unorthodox filming project. “If you’re making a film about something, you can fall back on the intrinsic interest of the material like the Antarctic,” he says. “With a story – a person’s story – you haven’t got that safety net.”

The Fear of 13 is not your conventional documentary film, excelling on all levels of original storytelling. Nick, the film’s protagonist, tells the tale of his life in a confessional and candid interview process. “I started out thinking that this was going to be your standard film,” explains Sington, “but it became obvious in about five minutes that this was not going to be your typical documentary.”

Sington developed the project alongside producing partner Christopher Riley whose credits include over 100 projects for the BBC, National Geographic, and The Discovery Channel. “We’re experienced filmmakers – we weren’t going to make some trashy movie or TV crime piece,” asserts Sington, “but we spent years trying to persuade people to help us make this very unusual film,” He adds. “We had to find somebody who would help us edit the material for no money, and, fortunately, we found Robert Sternberg.”

Consequently, three years since the filming process was completed for The Fear of 13, Sternberg – editor and Imperial College professor – managed to complete the film over an additional three-year editing process. “As a writer and professor, Richard very much brought a writer’s ability to edit the material.”

In a daring and progressive film, The Fear of 13 reveals an extensive amount of information as the story unfolds. “It’s a bit like being a lawyer when you’re making a documentary – we checked out every aspect of the story that we could,” recounts Sington. “He’s such a compelling storyteller that you think you’re watching an actor, but he’s not an actor. Navigating the sense that he is a real person, and this is his true story, was a challenge.”

While the premise of The Fear of 13 is fairly straightforward – a man sits in front of a camera and tells his story – Sington states that this was by far the most challenging project to come his way. “I think it is the best thing I’ve ever done with my colleagues, but also the most difficult.” In addition to funding hurdles, the director asserts that that was just the tip of the iceberg. “These interviews were incredibly intense – lots of tears were shed on both parts. He just went into this zone where he was reliving all the emotion, the feeling and the pain which is why it is so vivid.”

Sington adds that throughout the interview process, there were surprises along the way. “There were things that he’d never told anybody before until he told us during the interview,” he says. “It’s an internal story: it’s a psycho-drama that is extremely profound and was a deeply emotional experience. The film tones down just how brutal Nick’s experience was.”

The Fear of 13 received its UK premiere at the 59th BFI London Film Festival to rave reviews – something that its director never thought palpable. “I felt as if I was very much walking a high wire: I only had to put one foot wrong, and the whole thing would collapse.” Sington continues, “It’s been hard to make something that has the power of drama but also the truth of documentary because you’re always negotiating that tension.”

The Fear of 13 is far from your average documentary. Whilst it explores various themes and layers of complexity, at the heart of this story lies memory, redemption, and experience. 2015 has proven to be an extraordinary year for documentary films and The Fear of 13 is certainly no exception, marking itself as one of the most captivating in recent years.