The Crocodile on the Bus – Capturing memories before the Elephant forgets by Lynda Waterhouse

 

This is the second community short film I’ve produced in two years with funding from Southwark Council’s Neighbourhood Fund. It was twelve months in the making, on an excruciatingly low budget, drawing on tons of favours and goodwill and leaving me a bag of nerves.

Never one to make life easy for myself  by  following the exact same model as its companion, ‘The Old Cow in the Kitchen’ completed in 2024.

 https://www.southwark.gov.uk/southwark-presents/film-month-old-cow-kitchen-and-other-stories-2024)

I wanted this film to generate some new creative work so I invited Paul Taylor to write a poem using some of the old photographs of the area. He produced three stunning poems.  Sara Byers composed a song based on some of the accounts of cinemagoers to the iconic and long demolished Trocadero Cinema.

Our filmmaking process to the onlooker must have appeared lackadaisical and random but it was a deliberate decision on mine and filmmaker Ludmilla Andrews’s part not to simply ‘interview’ people. We wanted to take our time, share conversations, laughter and cake, trusting that the stories would eventually unfold. This meant that we built lasting friendships but also that Ludmilla had a huge task editing all the material. It also meant that some surprising stories emerged.

How many times have people said, mainly at funerals, ‘I wished I had asked them about... and now we’ll never know.’ Another aim of the project was to remind people to have those conversations and overcome any shyness about asking certain questions.  

Working on this project also held up a mirror to my own writing process reminding me that I always start a writing project with a character who interests me and often come up with a title long before the story is fully formed. Then comes a first draft followed by a long editing and cutting period.

So as the holiday season approaches and family and friends gather, now might be the perfect time to ask those questions.  Go on I dare you!