Josh Appignanesi, London-based filmmaker, script writer and director, has been chosen to direct a short film which will reflect three years of research conducted at Bournemouth University’s Centre for Qualitative Research.
The film, Rufus Stone, will tell the story of being gay and growing older in the British countryside. It will be produced as the key output of the three-year "Gay and Pleasant Land?” research project, a study about positioning, ageing and gay life in rural South West England and Wales.
The project is a work package in the New Dynamics of Ageing Project, "Grey and Pleasant Land?: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Connectivity of Older People in Rural Civic Society" and funded by the UK’s Research Councils.
Appignanesi recently directed and script edited the comedy feature film, The Infidel, written by David Baddiel and starring Omid Djalili and Richard Schiff, released internationally in Spring 2010. He has written and directed several short films, most notably Ex Memoria (2006) which stars Nathalie Press and Sara Kestelman in a study of a woman with Alzheimer's disease, funded by the Wellcome Trust; and Nine 1/2 Minutes (2003), a romantic comedy starring David Tennant.
Dr Kip Jones, Reader in the University’s School of Health & Social Care and Media School, and the project’s Lead Investigator and Executive Producer of Rufus Stone said, “We are very fortunate to secure Appignanesi’s involvement in this important output resulting from our three year’s of research efforts. Our hope is that the film will dispel many of the myths surrounding ageing, being gay and life in British rural settings. By engaging Appignanesi, the film and the results of this important, in-depth research will have significant impact on a wide variety of audiences.”
Shooting of Rufus Stone is tentatively scheduled to take place in rural Dorset in June with screening scheduled for late Autumn, 2011.
The Project's Advisory Committee, made up of older gay and lesbian citizens and interested service providers, are in the process of planning a one-day event at Bournemouth University to premier the film. Funding is currently being sought to show the film in remote south west England and Wales localities in 2012 using a mobile cinema.
