Round-the-world cyclist and adventurer, Tom Allen, will be showing his
film-documentary, Janapar, which tells the story of his four year epic cycle
adventure. The film will be screened at Saddleworth Cricket Club On Monday 18th
November. Doors and bar open at 7.00pm with the film starting at 7.30pm. There
will be a charity raffle to raise funds for Dr.Kershaw’s Hospice, with some
great prizes to be won, including signed copies of Tom’s book, Janapar, which accompanies the film.
After the film screening there will be a question and answer session with Tom,
followed by a book signing.
The following write-up is taken from a press-release for the film.
ABOUT TOM ALLEN
23-year-old Englishman Tom Allen is all set for a successful career in
IT, but he finds himself persisted by the question of our time: isn’t there
more to life than this? Leaving it all behind, Tom sets off on the ultimate
quest for freedom.
For the next 12,000 miles, with neither maps nor guidebooks, Tom films
the unfolding of his dream. Despite an unexceptional background and with no
athletic talent, he cycles and camps his way across three continents. But the
journey takes an unlikely detour when he falls in love with an Iranian-Armenian
girl.
Struggling to keep his dream alive, Tom convinces Tenny to get on a
bicycle and join him. But when things don’t go to plan, Tom is forced to
continue riding alone. His decisions lead him to the depths of the Sahara
desert, where - amid challenges unimaginable - he catches a glimpse of the
answer he set out to find.
Filmed over four years with cinematic ambition, Janapar - named
after the Armenian word for journey - is an honest and life-affirming tale of
finding what you’re looking for when you least expect it.
More than half a decade in the making, Janapar is the directorial
debut for James Newton who worked closely with Tom Allen as he captured every
aspect of life on the road. Cut from over 300 hours of material shot in 32
countries, the film is an unprecedented self-documentary with cinematic
ambition, featuring an original score by award-winning composer Vincent Watts. Janapar’s
World Premiere was held at the 20th Raindance Film Festival in London.
When I first met Tom, he was about to embark on the journey of a
lifetime. But neither of us knew what that would come to mean. A complete
newcomer to the world of filmmaking, Tom agreed to shoot his experience on a MiniDV
video camera. He would send me the footage whenever possible, and I would offer
him feedback.
Over the next four years his story unfolded. It soon became highly
personal, and Tom began telling his tale with frankness and intensity. While
freelancing as a producer-director for the BBC, I spent my weekends assembling
vignettes of Tom’s adventures and his burgeoning romance, trying to figure out
how this extremely intimate experience could be shaped into a single narrative.
After reading early drafts of Tom’s book and after many months of development,
I finally had a script.
Like a typical indie filmmaker I blagged my way into someone’s storage
cupboard, borrowed some equipment and convinced the best editor I knew to spend
two months in a dark room with only me, a cup of tea and Tom’s raw material for
company.
The footage spanned four years and three continents. Far beyond a simple
journey, it depicted entire chapters of its subject’s life. Wrestling with the
film’s structure, it soon became clear that the story was theatrical in scope.
It possessed the power to inspire and to change the way people thought about
life. It deserved more than to be told in simple chronological sequence.
Thankfully, the feature-length format provided the creative freedom to do the
story justice.
Janapar has universal themes. It
was beautifully filmed by Tom with an unusual level of honesty. He invested a
great deal of trust in the lens, and we hope that this is reflected in the
finished film.
James Newton is a documentary and factual TV producer-director. His most
recent project was a one-off documentary for BBC One about survivors of violent
crime, presented by Kirsty Young and including exclusive interviews with James
Bulger's mother. This 9pm special, transmitted on August 23rd 2012, was James’
first hour-long broadcast piece and became the most-watched program in the
slot. It received ‘Pick of the week’ in the Daily Mail, ‘One to watch’ in the
Telegraph, and attracted strong reviews across the press. Janapar is his
first theatrical feature documentary.
I met James whilst preparing to take a huge leap of faith, leaving
everything I knew behind to set out into the unknown. He was a director looking
for stories, and although I was initially reluctant, he soon convinced me to
film mine. I had no previous experience, and my early attempts at capturing my
experiences were less than successful. But when my journey began to stray from
the original plan, I recognised that the story was growing more interesting by
the day. At that point I decided to invest in the storytelling role
wholeheartedly.
As a complete newcomer to filmmaking, the biggest challenge of all was
to reconfigure my perception of the medium and start shooting for the edit.
Laypeople such as myself typically have no concept of the filmmaking process,
assuming that stories emerge more-or-less fully formed in front of the cameras.
I also had to train myself to form an honest, uninhibited relationship with the
lens. This took months of practice, far too many failed attempts, and some
serious soul-searching.
The footage I sent to James from the second and third years of
adventure, and the unexpected relationship I found in that time, now forms the
main story thread of Janapar. James and I worked hard on the production
throughout 2011 and 2012. I was writing a book concurrently with the script
development, and we’ve now got a finished feature documentary on our hands,
which we’re really proud of. Looking back, it’s funny to think that this
five-year project only came to completion through a string of fortunate
accidents entirely outside our control.
"A profound, gripping adventure - a dramatic story about the things
that matter most in life."
Oliver Steeds, Explorer & Investigative Journalist
"Tremendously moving, engaging, honest, and wonderful!!"
Roz Savage, Ocean Rower & National Geographic Adventurer Of The Year
2010
"So engrossed I almost missed my stop!"
Shane Winser, Expedition & Fieldwork Adviser, Royal Geographical
Society (with IBG)
Thanks to Tom Allen for the photos and information © Tom Allen
Tickets can be
ordered at www.janapar.ticketsource.co.uk
. For further information contact Chris: saddleworthdiscoverywalks@gmail.com
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