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