Filmmaker Statement

The Good Book is a 30 minute short film featuring a cast of invited performers and over 100 members of the local Leeds community. The films is Leeds People’s Theatre first production, produced by Slung Low with the support of Leeds 2023. Leeds People’s Theatre is the new company created by Slung Low to make epic performance work in Leeds. Filming of The Good Book took place in early 2020 across some of the most iconic locations in Leeds including Slung Low’s base, The Holbeck Social Club, Holbeck Cemetery, Leeds Central Library and Leeds Town Hall. The short film is directed by Sheffield’s Brett Chapman and is written by James Phillips. The Good Book continues with Phillips’ themes of future dystopia, begun in The White Whale at Leeds Dock in 2013, continued in 2014 with Camelot - a Slung Low and Sheffield Theatres outdoor co-production. Phillips’ dystopian worlds were last explored as a centre piece of Hull UK City of Culture 2017’s performance programme and on the BBC with the epic 4-part Flood. The Good Book stars Riana Duce, Katie Eldred and Angus Imrie along with over 100 citizens of Leeds with a crew brought together from across the North of England and beyond. In 2018 Slung Low won a Royal Television Society Television Award (Yorkshire) for Innovation for Flood on BBC2 and continue to innovate with this collision of filmmaking and theatre, mixing a documentary, guerrilla style of shooting with Slung Low’s trademark flair for the explosive. Leeds People’s Theatre Company is created by Slung Low and will be a dedicated division for large-scale professional arts projects with communities at the heart of them. This involves the community participating in and with professional artists and creative teams, offering an opportunity to learn, gain more experience or simply be part of a community. The project will be a legacy for the people of Leeds, a company that will allow them to not only be an audience member for large-scale artistic projects, but to be part of that work for future generations to come, in their own city.