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FRI NIGHT VID: Lines of Flight

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 UKC News 19 May 2017
Lines of Flight, 3 kbOur Friday Night Video this week teases out a relationship between twentieth century economic labour in Britain'sĀ industrial north, the world of mass-consumption that people inhabit today, and soloing

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7
 jas wood 19 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:

Watched Martin soloing at Almscliffe one day, effortless !
 Wizzy 19 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:

That footage of Wellington Crack is incredible. So brilliantly raw
 Kiell 19 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:

Tonally not everyone's cup of tea, I'm sure, but that was fantastic. And refreshing.

It had a strange technical quality to it also, I thought, perhaps as though it was shot on a slightly older video format such as DV-Cam. Maybe just the upload compression. Or my shoddy internet connection.
1
 Tom Green 19 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:

Best climbing video I've seen for ages.

The fact that the climbs were not named, and were only an equal part to the other elements of the film, made the sentiment of Lines of Flight seem even more sincere.

Fantastic.
2
 chrishamper 19 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:

Great vid.
Brought back a lot of memories.
Not welly boot crack though, wouldn't solo that.
1
 BusyLizzie 19 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:

What a beautiful flim!
1
Yorik 19 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:

Brilliant, love it. What a refreshing approach.
1
 AP Melbourne 20 May 2017
In reply to Yorik:

Yep. Great that, enjoyed it immensely, thanks.
AP.
1
 Greenbanks 20 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:

A wonderful reason to stay indoors on a Friday night...understated, authentic and inspiring

Thank you
1
 Mike Highbury 20 May 2017
In reply to Kiell:
> Tonally not everyone's cup of tea, I'm sure, but that was fantastic.

You reckon? They just need to get over themselves.
13
 BelleVedere 20 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:

thanks! really enjoyed this film. managed to be both agitating and serene
1
 john arran 20 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:

The dislikes suggest that I'm not the only one who wasn't bowled over by this. Sure, it was beautifully filmed, very watchable, and had an interesting point to make But it was really just a single concept, it seemed to me to be laboured, and I wasn't convinced the climbing sequences themselves were captivating enough to compensate. Maybe I've just become one of the youth generation with a deficient attention span, or maybe I've done too much soloing, or something.
7
 TXG 20 May 2017
In reply to john arran:

Yep. I'm with you on that. All the "Message" in this film could be distilled down to an excellent film of about a minute and eleven seconds.

youtube.com/watch?v=At5feLPkx-4&

No slight intended to the climbers they interviewed. They were all very articulate, but the film didn't really go anywhere with many of the points they made (Andy Popp's comments, in particular I thought were worth spending more time on).

Besides, the whole thing just made me overly upset about the loss of the old pinks

Cheers

Tom
2
 Tom Last 20 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:

"I may be a wage slave on Monday, but I am a free man on Sunday..."
1
 jack_44 20 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:

Really enjoyable watch.
1
 1poundSOCKS 20 May 2017
In reply to john arran:

> The dislikes suggest that I'm not the only one who wasn't bowled over by this.

Worth a watch but nothing special. If think it's a bit of a problem if you live close to a place like Almscliff, or indeed any popular gritstone crag, you can see this kind of action live. Far more engrossing (if that's the right word) when you're actually there and the outcome is less certain. And I don't think the sentiments expressed are anything unusual.

I love the style of other Rich Heap films, if I remember correctly that he did Hard XS. But the content of those films is far more entertaining IMO.
1
 Robert Durran 20 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:

I'm not sure whether, overall, to be irritated or inspired by his film, but I thought the actual climbing clips were really good - refereshing to hear all the huffing and puffing rather than irrelevant music.
 Jon Stewart 20 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:

I really liked the film, strikes a chord as someone who's spent a lot of time soloing the same grit routes after work for years on end. I like the reflection on the North, the landscape and human geography and how climbing fits into the story. But that academic from York doesn't half talk bollocks!
Removed User 21 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:

I'm torn on this. Part of me wants to react against the Northern version of American psychobabble running through the narrative. I mean a historian, university lecturer, teacher - it's hardly working bloody class escapism now is it?

However there were some great touches - idea of miking up the soloist on Wellington Crack is pure genius and was genuinely compelling/gripping.
1
 alan moore 21 May 2017
In reply to TXG:

> All the "Message" in this film could be distilled down to an excellent film of about a minute and eleven seconds.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

Don't agree with you on that particular one one but have to say "when the work is done" on Vimeo, did a better job of The North.

But great to hear from a few living legends like Mr Austin and Popp!

 C Witter 21 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:
I thought it was a great little film. The makers are obviously very fond of Patrick Keiller - it's almost a pastiche of London or Robinson in Space. I enjoyed the way that the montaged scenes made connections between work, consumption and climbing without them being overlaboured.

The climbing was beautiful - smooth, passionate, enjoyed, without being turned into a spectacle.

It was good, too, that it escaped the cliche of the North as exclusively populated by coal miners and Salford plumbers - in order to have a more interesting conversation about the continuities between that kind of labour and the exploitative and intensified work practices of the 21st century, which effect teachers and lecturers as well as cleaners and supermarket workers (though, obviously not in exactly the same ways).

I liked the idea of 'lines of flight' - it captures something. It's not psychobabble - it's just an attempt to articulate a problem that is hard to name. In places the film was a bit romanticised, but I liked this concept.

I really enjoyed it, anyhow, and not least because it connects with my own experiences of climbing and of soloing, in particular. Soloing for me is what I do when my zero-hours contracts leave me unemployed midweek. It's hard to get a partner. And you're restless for something - something that lets you hold your head up and makes you feel your life isn't slipping down the drain. So, you light out for the territories and send a few old favourites by yourself. I love the space for calmness, reflection and recollection that soloing in some pretty out of the way spot opens up.

One thing I did notice though: no women in this landscape. Why is that, I wonder?
Post edited at 14:23
Andrew Popp 21 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:

Andrew Popp here, still trying to get over myself.

I'm glad that people have enjoyed (though I can claim no part in its making). I'd particularly like to thank C Witter for his defence and understanding of the argument the film is trying to make: that though the jobs many of us do may have changed, many of the characteristics of work, how it impacts our lives, show strong continuities. Besides, Andy Cave is an ex-miner ... then again, he also has a PhD in socio-linguistics. All these categories are getting blurred.

Thanks too for saying it wasn't psychobabble. I'm always slightly depressed when any attempt to articulate some thought and reflection is met with this kind of dismissal. Steve Linstead does not talk bollocks. The film actually wears its learning pretty lightly.

One correction, it is not a Rich Heap film, it was produced and directed by Martin Wood and Sal Brown.

Finally I have to blush (and laugh) about being bracketed with Allan Austin. I am truly not worthy!
2
 Dominic Green 21 May 2017
I really enjoyed this. It's great to see something made about an aspect of climbing that sets out to connect it to the wider environment in which it happens and the landscape where it has emerged from as an activity. I thought that the points that the film made were multiple, simple, not particularly pretentious but not afraid to reach for words and struggle to convey something meaningful and personal. It's hard to do and this film does it well.
Sure, for some folks it's mental embroidery of something that for them has to be more simple and functional, but I love its endeavour and I like the way it riffs on themes.
What John says is right, it does explore a single concept, but it comes at it from a few angles. I think that is a strength to be able to do that with so many different voices and references, not a detraction.
Great.
1
 Pete Pozman 22 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:

Music by Robin Garside... the Big Orange, self styled King of Cubley?
 Pete Pozman 22 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:

Very enjoyable.
 Blake 22 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:

Absolutely loved it... watched it a couple of times - think I'm going to watch it a good few more to absorb it. Refreshingly realistic climbing scenes - loved hearing the climbers talking so affectionately.

Really appreciated the reading of Gerard Manley over the top of it all too... a man truly in awe of nature.
 Ramblin dave 22 May 2017
In reply to C Witter:

> I thought it was a great little film. The makers are obviously very fond of Patrick Keiller - it's almost a pastiche of London or Robinson in Space.

Oh that's cool, I thought it was just me picking up on that similarity!

I generally enjoyed it as well, although I thought it could maybe have dug a bit deeper into the theoretical premise - after a while it began to feel a bit like it was repeating itself rather than elaborating.

I actually find videos of good climbers soloing grit massively inspiring to watch - the UKC video of Jack Geldard at Almscliffe a few years back was similar - because it feels kind of like the perfect execution of the sort of climbing that I do myself, where cutting edge leading seems like a different discipline entirely.
 John H Bull 25 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:
Hands are still sweating after the Wellington Crack sequence - great stuff. Good film - more could be made of the work/escape theme, it still seems as relevant as ever. The idea of climbing paralleling meditation as a form of emptying the mind is something I've always found interesting.





 steveriley 29 May 2017
In reply to UKC News:

A lot to like in that and enjoyed it on the bigger screen. The thought that we might not find the climbing quite so captivating probably says more about the diet of movies we've grown used to and the fairly small set of idioms they fall into. The distraction of names and grades was neatly avoided, though anyone that's been around a while is likely to mentally ticking them off, a flash of subtitle gives generally gives too easy a box to put the segment into. Rather like reading the tags first in a gallery. Very English: Defoe, Lawrence, Etc. I liked the ordinariness of the climbing, very relatable.
 DavidEvans 27 Jun 2017
In reply to UKC News:

Fantastic - really enjoyed watching. Thanks.
In reply to UKC News:

If you're near Cromford Derbyshire you just have time to see him tonight at Scarthin Books' Cafe Philosophique (in the Methodist Church opposite the bookshop)

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