In 2018 we were pleased to secure funding from the radical arts funding organisation ‘Future’s Venture’ to produce a film about the life and work of the influential artist Paul Burwell, who died in Hull in 2007.
Six years later we’re very proud to announce that our feature-length documentary Burning Bridges has its premiere at the Institute for Contemporary Arts on The Mall in London on November 3rd as part of the 11th Doc’N Roll Music Documentary Festival.
Paul Burwell’s work was relentlessly avant garde, and nearly 20 years after his death is still regarded as occupying the most extreme edges of creative endeavour.
‘The world’s first fine art drummer’
A hugely gifted percussionist, Burwell has been described as ‘the world’s first fine art drummer’; his performances frequently involved hitting things hard on an industrial scale, alongside explosions, magick, shamanism and a large amount of genuine personal danger.
Paul would burn bridges literally and metaphorically. After becoming established as one of the leading lights in improvised music and performance art in London in the 1970s and 80s, Paul turned his back on the London scene, moved to Hull and placed himself at the centre of a creative community – described in the film as being something like a tribe – in the ramshackle buildings and grounds of Kingston Rowing Club Boathouse at the back of Oak Road playing fields.
The story of an artist who truly pushed boundaries
But what began as a new start for Paul soon descended into something more like Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, as both alcohol and his own personal demons took hold, culminating in his untimely death at the age of 58.
Despite it’s tragic arc, Burning Bridges is an inspiring story of an artist who truly pushed the boundaries and explored new forms of expression in performance art and sound.
Through new interviews with many of Paul’s contemporaries including acclaimed artists and improvising musicians Anne Bean, Richard Wilson, David Toop, Evan Parker, Steve Beresford, Max Eastley, Sylvia Hallett, Peter Cusack, Shaun Caton, Ansuman Biswas and many others as well as access to rarely seen archives of film, sketchbooks, photography and diaries – Burning Bridges explores a fascinating, dangerous and challenging aspect of late 20th century radical art in the UK, and tells the story of one of its brightest stars.
