THE COMMUTER

(2003, 1’30”, QuickTime transferred to 35mm)

Two 35mm prints available.

An office-worker shaves his face off every morning in order to blend in with the other faceless commuters on their way to work.

The film is a live-action/digital hybrid. Live-action video and was captured on a Macintosh computer and repainted a frame at a time in Adobe PhotoShop. The grainy image quality, which gives the film its distinctive look and feel, is an artifact of the image compression available in 1996.

The Commuter is a 90-second reworking of my 1996 film Shaving and was made especially for Interfilm Berlin’s short film festival ‘Going Underground‘ 2003. The film was selected as one of fourteen to be screened on the trains on the Berlin Undergound on 4th, 6th and 7th February 2003 and again at the Urania cinema on 8th February. 

CAST

The Commuter: Pat Reid

CREW

Camera & Effects: Martin Pickles & Jonathan Mercer
Sound Design: Dave Peacock
Co-producer: Jonathan Mercer
Written, Directed & Produced by Martin Pickles
35mm Film Blow-up by CFS
Blow-up funded by British Council Print Fund

SCREENING HISTORY

2006 to present

The Politics Of Moisture exhibition, Siger Gallery, London: 30th March 2019
London Animation Club, London, 9th January 2018
Rushes Soho Shorts Festival, Dazzle Films Screening July 2008
Independent Film Festival II, British Council, Cairo, Egypt 23rd November 2007
Uppsala Short Film Festival, Sweden as part of a ‘Best Of Depict!’ screening October 2007
Rushes Soho Shorts Festival, Dazzle Films screenings: 5:00 pm at Rushes, 66 Old Compton Street, London, and at 7:00 pm, The Hospital, 25 Endell Street, London July 31st 2006

2005

Super Shorts Film Festival, 01 and Costa, London September 8th 2005
BBC Filmnetwork Website: see the film online from July 20th 2005
Hull International Short Film Festival, BBC Big Screen, Victoria Square, Hull, UK July 15th 2005
Homegrown Hollywood, BBC2 Learning Zone, UK Television July 14th 2005 etc.
Future Shorts, Studio Athanor, 17-19 Rue de la Fourche, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium June 27th 2005
Berlin Talent Campus, at the House Of World Cultures, Berlin, Germany February 12-17th 2005

2004

Face On Film Festival, The Curzon Mayfair Cinema, Mayfair, London November 21st 2004
L’Alternativa 11th Barcelona Independent Film Festival, Pantalla Hall, Barcelona, Spain November 12-20th 2004
Simrishamn International Art Film Festival, Galleri Valfisken, Simrishamn, Sweden October 14-17th 2004
8th International Video Festival Videomedeja, at the Museum of Voivodina, Novi Sad, Serbira and Montenegro October 2nd 2004
MECAL 2004 Festival Internacional de Cortometrajes, Barcelona, Spain Aug 27th-Sep 4th 2004
OMSK ROAM, East London July 25th 2004
Talent Circle event, Central London July 20th 2004
Animafest Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia June 17th 2004
Fantastic Films Weekend, at NMPFT, Bradford, West Yorkshire May 22nd-23rd 2004
Welwyn Garden Film Society: ‘The Commuter’ and ‘G.M.’ were both screened as accompanying shorts for the Aki Kaurismaki feature film ‘Man Without A Past.’ Special thanks to Dawn Sharpless of Dazzle Films May 7th 2004
Festival des Tres Courts, at venues across France May 7th-9th 2004
Kino outdoor screening, Manchester for The Bigger Picture April 10th-24th 2004
Dazzle Films Screening at Curzon Soho Cinema, London April 22nd 2004 at 6pm
Dresden Film Festival, Germany April 16th & 18th 2004
Bimini Film Festival, Latvia April 1st-4th, 2004
Cinenygma Film Festival, Luxembourg Mar 28th-April 2nd, 2004
Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Market, France February 2004
Wood Green Film Festival, London February 7th 2004
Halloween Shorts Festival, ICA, London January 9th 2004

2003

Depict! Film Festival, Bristol November 2003
Foyle Film Festival, Derry, Northern Ireland November 2003
Kino Film Festival, Manchester, England October 2003
Flexiff Film Festival, Sydney, Australia September 2003
International Scientific Film Festival, Szolnok, Hungary September 2003
International Open Image Competition, Deluxe Gallery, London March 2003
Going Underground Film Festival, Berlin, Germany February 2003

SUPER SHORTS TOUR

OXFORD March 2006
CARDIFF March 8th 2006
GLASGOW: Glasgow Media Access Centre, 34 Albion Street, 3rd Floor, Glasgow G1 1LH February 22nd 2006
LONDON: Video Forum, Earl’s Court 2, Warwick Road, London SW5 9TA Showing: ALL 375 Films. Feb 7th – 9th 2006
MARGATE: Beeping Bush, The Community Pharmacy Gallery, 16 Market Place, Margate, Kent CT9 1ES: ALL 375 Films January 26th 2006
BRIGHTON, Hanbury Arms, 83 St. Georges Rd, Brighton, BN2 1EF January 16th 2006
DERBYSHIRE, Winding Wheel Function rooms, 13 Holywell Street, Chesterfield, Derbyshire S41 7SA December 21st 2005
WOLVERHAMPTON, Light House Media Centre, Chubb Buildings, Fryer St, Wolverhampton WV1 1HT December 15th 2005
CORNWALL, Acorn, Parade Street, Penzance, Cornwall, TR18 4BU December 14th 2005
HULL, BBC Big Screen, Queen Victoria Square Dec 3rd – 9th 2005
EDINBURGH: TALENT CIRCLE SUPER SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL 2005, Brass Monkey Bar, 14 Drummond St, Edinburgh EH8 9TU: ALL 375 Films Dec 5th – 9th 2005
LIVERPOOL, BBC Big Screen, Clayton Square Nov 12th – Dec 9th 2005
BIRMINGHAM, BBC Big Screen, Chamberlain Square Nov 12th – Dec 9th 2005
NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, Digital Lounge, Tyneside Cinema, 10 Pilgrim Street, Part of the Northern Lights Film Festival programme. (nlff.co.uk)
ALL 375 Films screened Nov 20th – 23rd 2005
BELFAST, Queens Film Theatre, 20 University Square November 9th 2005
MANCHESTER BBC Big Screen, Exchange Square October 8th -21st 2005

“AS IS: A DOWNSIZED LIFE”

In 2005 The Commuter was incorporated into the 70 minute documentary As Is: A Downsized Life by Maryanne Galvin (USA, 70 min, 2005).
Dr. Galvin describes her film as follows:
“‘As Is: A Downsized Life’ takes you behind the scenes into the lives of nine diverse individuals who encounter economic simplicity. All were once upwardly mobile. In 2004 they found themselves earning, spending, consuming less and making incredible discoveries about themselves along the way. Some embraced voluntary economic simplicity as a lifeform long ago. Others recently found themselves unemployed, ill without insurance or otherwise without income. Each conveys a true grit approach to confronting consumerism, materialism and the implications on self esteem, dignity and freedom.”

SCREENING HISTORY

Broadcast on Comcast Cable and Urban Cableworks Channels 54, 48, 62 & 99:

– December 1st & 2nd 2007 at 5 PM and Midnight
– November 30th at 10 PM and Midnight
– November 4th 2007 at 5 PM and Midnight
– November 3rd 2007 at 5 PM and Midnight
– November 2nd 2007 at 10 PM
October 30th 2007 at 9 PM

East Bay Media Center/Berkeley Video & Film Festival, in the Bay Area, CA, USA Autumn 2005
The St. Louis International Film Festival, USA November 2005
San Francisco State University Fall Film Series, USA Autumn 2005
The Doctoberfest/Clark University, Worcester MA, USA October 30th 2005
The Rhode Island International Film Festival, USA August 2005
The Boston International Film Festival, USA: June 2005