Branchage Film Festival

In an attempt to find out if those of us down south are soft or not – John Shuttleworth, alter ego of comedian Graham Fellows made his way to Jersey.

During his time here he met a pigeon fancier, the Jersey Rugby Team and several slightly bewildered people on the streets.

But are we soft? One street cleaner seemed to think so – but its quiet hard to tell exactly what conclusion the film comes to at the moment.

The version shown during the Branchage Film Festival was a VERY rough editor of the final release – due by the end of spring 2009.

Although the edit was rough, the sound not properly mixed and a number of shots in place that didn't seem to fit the narrative – it was also a rare treat to be able to watch a film maker, during the post screening Q&A ponder the shots and sequences he will put into the final release.

Graham was thinking of changes to the order and structure in front of our eyes – in direct response to questions from the audience.

The film does actually come to a conclusion – one that will be a considerable amount clearer when the final version is released next year.

And I will save my full review for when I get to watch the final release – after all it was suggested the film will get its premiere here in Jersey.

So let’s look instead at the question I started this article with, and the question John tries to find the answer to while travelling around the Channel Islands.

The conclusion was fairly well summed up by Graham when he was asked whether he had gone a little bit soft now he lives in London.

His response was that, now he is living in London he thinks “southerners are hard and northerners are soft.” This was a similar conclusion twist to the one that came out of his previous film ‘Is it nice up north?’ that saw him travel to the Shetland Islands.

The conclusion to that film, in Graham’s words was that “the nicest person we might while filming was from Devon”.

So are southerners soft? No not really – not any softer than anyone from the north at least. You have soft southerners, soft northerners and hard northern and southerners as well.

Graham said: “It’s a comedy, these are red herrings. Location has no bearing on your softness.”

Well unless you're French.