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9
Lives Productions
presents a documentary film
The Stick & The Stars
The Life
& Times of Commander Bill King
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Research
The
project team began research in 2004. No one knew anything about Bill
King other than folklore. None of us had his history or had read his
books. None of the project team (except Martin Mannion) knew anything
much except he's alive, was in the 2nd World War and he sailed alone
around the world in the late sixties. Various tasks were assigned
to individuals ( there were only 3 of us) and everyone went off with good intentions.
Being a crew with full-time jobs (not in film), with families,
mouths to feed etc., things moved exteremely slowly. After the initial
interviews with Bill, not much happened! I ordered the books off
various web-sites such as Amazon, read the books and filled a few
notebooks.
We
had a 2 day window in March 2004 when Paul Shanahan, Tom, Martin and
myself were all able to locate in Oranmore, but Bill got ill with a
cold (as he seys, "I never get ill") and lost his voice early in our second day of interviewing so we exited with less than 6 hours of footage.
As coincidences go, A Japanese chap called Akira contacted Leonie Finn (Bill King's daughter) and thus the Reconcilliation Episode
became a sub-project in its own right. However the main project goes
on. We have the plan, the footage, the skills and the perserverence.
All we need is the finance to pursue the project, to continue research
and buy the appropriate WW2 footage and "Golden Globe - Lone Sailor
Round the World Race" film shots from RTE/ BBC and ITV archives.
More anon...........