Invisible film-maker remembers Island's dark era

By John Hill on August 12, 2008 11:18 AM |

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William Raban is a film-maker, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a story-teller.

The Mile End-based artist began to explore cinema after studying painting in the 1970s. And he believes you can capture more of a scene by just shooting it, rather than manipulating it with plots and fancy editing.

He said: “When I film, I try to be invisible. I like to think I’m attempting to achieve a sort of objectivity.
“I worked with actors once but I’m not really that interested in narrative cinema. Life on the street is so interesting that I can’t imagine why people would want to invent stories.”

This naturalistic approach saw him wandering around the Isle of Dogs in the mid-’90s, capturing the tension of a racially-divided community with a camera hidden in a pram.

For his 1996 film Island Race, William pointed his camera at Isle of Dogs residents during a turbulent period, in which Millwall had a British National Party councillor and racial tensions spilled over.

The film was the last in his Under The Tower trilogy, a view of Canary Wharf and the surrounding area which will be screened at this year’s Canary Wharf Film Festival.

He said: “It was a very violent time, with terrible racism and a sense that the community was divided.
“It was very important to capture everything naturally, so I adopted a lot of disguises. If I wanted to get a shot of a building, I would wear a high-visibility jacket and roll up in a white van. I was never challenged.
“At the time, my daughter was two or three so I would hide the camera behind her pushchair. I suppose there’s an ethical issue about filming people without permission, but you could argue that everything that takes place in the street is in the public domain.”

In his trilogy, William also explored the impact caused by the building of the Limehouse Link in A13 (1994). He began his series in 1992 with Sundial, a series of shots of One Canada Square taken from different locations.

He travelled 750 miles to take the 72 shots, which he combined into a one-minute film. He said: “I wanted to use the tower as a constant to look at social contrasts. The building sparked a lot of social divisions when it first appeared. It was seen as a monument to this crazy Thatcherite idea that you could move the financial heart of London to the Isle of Dogs.”

William shuns digital shooting and editing in favour of cutting film himself from 16mm and 35mm cameras.
His films will be shown at the Cineworld West India Quay on August 30, a fact which delights the film-maker.

He said: "People are watching films more in the home, and it's sad that the cinema's role has declined.
"You get a very particular experience watching a film with other people. If you're seeing something subversive which is different to what you normally get, it registers much better."

William Raban will hold a Q&A before his screening on August 30 from 4.30pm. Tickets are available from www.cwff.org.uk for £3.