Home » News & Media » News & Articles » Brief Encounters » Invisible Circus: No Dress Rehearsal

Invisible Circus: No Dress Rehearsal

31 March 2011, by Mireia
POSTED IN: Brief Encounters
TAGS: Talent, Documentary

'Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible'

Encounters was delighted to hear that Filmmaker Naomi Smyth, a former attendee of the 2008 Encounters Film School in Editing, has recently been picked up by Future Artists to distribute her debut feature documentary, Invisible Circus: No Dress Rehearsal. As Naomi gets ready to unleash her film to the world, we asked her to tell us about her experience of creating this labour of love about Bristol performers The Invisible Circus, and to give us an insight into the incredible four-year journey of the documentary film.

When the Invisible Circus moved into a derelict garage near my house, I was thinking a ten-minute short at the most. They were squatting at the time, which means that it was legal for them to live there until the eviction notice was served-but not to hold events as they were doing. The events were fantastic- cabarets, film screenings and huge promenade theatre spectacles. Somehow they injected a weirdly luxurious turn of the century bohemian feel into this rotting concrete hulk. It clearly wasn't going to last though so I picked up my camera and shot until they were evicted. It was an inspiring project, all built out of skips and old tat but beautiful- and I just didn't want to see it disappear without a record.

But the story just kept developing. The ring master Doug Francis had a really clear vision that the crew that had gathered around that building could keep going and become more professional. Even then he was talking about the idea of Artspace Lifespace- a co-op that could take on derelict buildings and get licensed to open them to the public. I could see that for a squat crew, that was going to be an interesting journey. Many of them were passionate about staying underground and opposing landlords as a general rule. Others really aspired to be a professional performing company and were tired of the instability of getting evicted every few weeks.

The fascinating characters drew me in, both as a filmmaker and on a personal level, and 3 years later I had 300 hours of footage and a LOT of editing to do. In that time the circus had occupied a Wetherspoons pub, a washing machine showroom, a small police station, a huge wrecked Cathedral, and finally an enormous Police & Fire station in the centre of town (Bristol). They had also created and performed around 17 new shows and facilitated hundreds of other artists to showcase their work. It was full power, no-budget creativity and it put them all under a lot of strain- but exhilarating too.

I had also got swept up in performing in their shows by the end of 2007. I had to recruit my husband Sam as second camera when I was onstage. Performing was something I'd always loved and seeing the circus make shows with such a fast turn around and genuinely 'No Dress Rehearsal', it took away a lot of my fear about my own creativity. I hope seeing the film will do the same for everyone who watches it. It's really about how when you have a dream, you just have toget on with it! Just do it what ever way you can.

With no funding except my income from teaching and freelance, I holed up with a second-hand laptop worth £500, and stopped sleeping for a few months. At one point I had to stop freelance and really focus on the edit, so I recruited 80 microfunders who each donated between £10 and £100. I chopped away until I finally had a roughcut.

At that point I knew I had lost perspective, so I found 12 advisors from filmmakers' network Shooting People. The feedback I got from that was fantastic, and based on their detailed notes I refined the cut to a tight, fast-moving narrative.

The power of the collective and the wider scope for DIY creativity in today's world was integral both the Invisible Circus and to my production methods. So it's very appropriate that transmedia co-op Future Artists (www.futureartists.co.uk) should have found the trailer online and offered to distribute the film. Their motto is 'without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible'. It's really exciting to meet people who really get what the film is about.

I got a lot of support while I was making it, but I also heard a lot of Bristol people say that nobody outside Bristol was going to be interested. I think Bristol really likes to 'own' things that started here, and that can be a dual thing of loving them but also assuming they're not quite as good as what goes on elsewhere- or just 'a Bristol thing'. Sometimes things that are completely world class can hide here quietly for a surprisingly long time.

In the past year that has really changed. Arte sent a crew down from Germany for the last CarnyVille spectacular, and the Circus is getting offers from all over the place. As far as the film goes, Future Artists are based in Manchester and I've had people from London, Vancouver and Portugal stumble across the trailer on Twitter and fall in love with it. I knew way back in 2006 that the Invisibles were special, and now everybody else is going to see that too.

I am working closely with Future Artists to launch the film in 2011, so watch this space....

Naomi Smyth
March 2011