Don McCullin’s long-time assistant and film director Jacqui Morris is seeking funds through crowd sourcing to allow her to complete a new documentary on Society member Don McCullin HonFRPS. The documentary sheds new light on McCullin’s work and working methods.

Morris comments: “I worked for Don as an assistant for many years, and have seen and read just about every interview with him. But I always felt he was holding back, and believed that the discussions he and I had regarding his experiences as a war photographer, and how that shaped his philosophy, were more moving and revealing than those I’d seen reported. With this in mind I asked Don if I could make a film of his life. He readily agreed and has given us unparalleled access to film some extraordinarily candid interviews.”

With extensive input from the Sir Harold Evans, the editor of the Sunday Times from 1967-81, the film not only explores Don’s life and work but also how the ethos of journalism changed during his career.

The made-for-cinema documentary shows how Don McCullin created some of the latter twentieth-century’s most iconic images of man's inhumanity to man. He brought the impact and reality of human conflict to the general reader,  going on war assignments sometimes with only twenty rolls of film. He was shooting with a respect for image now disappearing from the digital age; and we have shot our film on 16mm in order to compliment his work.

 The birth of this film came out a desire to document the life and work of an extraordinary and charismatic person, whose work in the field of journalism was so innovative and unique of it’s time it has gone on to shape the way in which newsworthy stories are bought to the masses today. It is the story of moments in time that can never be replicated; but with the assistance of amazing archive footage and copies of the Sunday Times unseen for fifty years, it goes on a journey with him and explores his pioneering work and we show the audience the lengths to which Don went to taken some of the most important pictures of our time.

The film needs support to be completed and to be entered in 2012 festivals.  The project independently, and Morris wants it to remain so:  “Your investment – however small - will allow us to not compromise the film’s message by having to accommodate traditional funders. So we have self-funded where we could and we’ve created this film through monumental personal commitment to the story, and the generous in-kind donations of time and skills from industry professionals.

We want to enter our film into high-profile festivals, but to do this we need support in the final stages of post-production.”

What Your Support Means

75,000 dollars are complete the film. The money will pay for expensive clearance rights for archive footage (some of it unseen for fifty years) and music rights and final post-production costs.

In return for support at the different levels, you receive exclusive benefits relating to the film ranging from a Q+A with McCullin to co-producer credit.

See: http://igg.me/p/54422?a=334227 for more information and to subscribe and see the documentary about one of The Society’s most important members turn in to reality.