In January 2014, musician, DJ, singer and writer Ben Watt (Everything But The Girl) teamed up with friend and acclaimed Irish film-maker and critic Mark Cousins (The Story of Film) to find a new talent to make a short film for the title-track for Watt's new solo album, Hendra - his first for thirty-one years.
After running a treatment competition, the winning script came from London-based screenwriter and Slow Cinema devotee, Rahim Moledina.
Yesterday, Indiewire premiered the video for "Hendra". Filmed in east London on a shoestring budget - and inspired by the
lyrics of Watt's simple folk song about the dreams of his late sister, a
rural postmistress and shopkeeper - the film, directed by Moledina
himself, unsentimentally yet tenderly transposes the action and depicts a
day in the life of an Asian shopkeeper. Cousins calls it a "mini-masterpiece" - high praise indeed from a
man who has made one of the most celebrated documentaries on the history
of cinema - the fifteen-hour epic The Story of Film.
"Hendra" is taken from Watt's upcoming album of the same name - in
his own words 'a folk-rock album in an electronic age' - due out on his
own new imprint, Unmade Road on April 29.
Recorded in London and Berlin, Hendra is a meeting of
worlds: languid folk, distorted rock and buzzing electronics; in part a
result of the album's two central collaborators, ex-Suede guitarist, Bernard Butler, and Berlin-based producer Ewan Pearson.
Also to be released this year is Watt's memoir "Romany and Tom,"
which will be published by Bloomsbury Press in North America this June.
The Financial Times called the book "a poignant, life affirming work"
while John Niven said "Forget Morrissey: Romany & Tom is the most
beautiful, compelling memoir by a musician you'll read for a very long
time."
US Tour Dates: 4/1: New York, NY - Joe's Pub 4/2: Brooklyn, NY - Rough Trade 4/4: Los Angeles, CA - The Echo Track List: 1) Hendra 2) Forget 3) Spring 4) Golden Ratio 5) Matthew Arnold’s Field 6) The Gun 7) Nathaniel 8) The Levels 9) Young Man’s Game 10) The Heart is a Mirror
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