Fantastic Fest: Oscar Harding on the Magic of DIY Filmmaking
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When you hear the term, “found footage,” you most likely think of horror films. The Blair Witch Project is one of the most infamous examples of the genre, but director Oscar Harding wants to show a more human side to the world of lost film. He does so through the lens of Charles Carson, a farmer who lived in a remote town in the countryside of England. As Charles got older and grew more isolated on the farm, he turned to filmmaking. It’s unclear exactly how many hours of content he produced because hundreds of videotapes were disposed before they had the chance to be digitized. Harding’s film, A Life on the Farm, uses Charles’ own footage to look at a way of life that is fading.
Harding sat down with Beyond the Cinerama Dome to discuss his personal ties to Charles’ story, rural mental health, and the enduring power of underdog filmmaking.
Harding’s family grew up in the same village as Charles and Harding’s grandparents were gifted a copy of Charles’ two-hour epic: Life on the Farm. Originally on VHS tape, Harding’s aunt digitized the film. It was this version of Life on the Farm that was Harding’s first exposure to Charles’ story and what would ultimately prove to be unforgettable for Harding.
“It was just this thing that was discussed and then we watched the digitized version and dad switched it off halfway through. It was the images that stuck with me,” Harding says. “Y’know, when you’re a kid, I think you kind of embellish things and you exaggerate because you’re a kid and the world seems that much bigger…There’s no way this is going to be as extraordinary as I remember it. Turns out, it’s even more extraordinary.”
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What is it about this homemade farm-life documentary that could elicit this sort of response after viewing?
The answer comes in two parts. From a strictly technical viewpoint, Charles managed to put together intricate films with practical effects, smart scripts, and complex editing. This was a man in his eighties and nineties teaching himself the newest technology at the time to create something bigger than himself. “The films he made were just fantastic…It’s because they’re genuine and authentic,” Harding says. “It’s coming from a pure place of I want to express myself creatively or I want to entertain people…This film wouldn’t work if the found footage wasn’t good.”
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That’s the other reason that Charles’ Life on the Farm was so spellbinding to Harding. “You’re seeing this footage that is just insane. It’s absolutely bizarre,” Harding smiles. “There’s dead cats, there’s short films where he’s playing multiple different characters, he’s just showing cow birth…It’s so uniquely and oddly British.”
However bizarre the footage, the joke is never on Charles. “You’re laughing at the footage because he wanted you to,” Harding explains. “And then by the end of this, you’re laughing with him because it’s so admirable that he was using this stuff as a creative outlet when he’s in isolation and looking after chronically ill family members and running that farm by himself.”
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Harding’s intentions with making his documentary quickly became twofold. On the one hand, he wanted to celebrate the prolific work of Charles. “This could be all there is of Charles and that’s another reason why we had to get this out there and tell this story…This has to be shown. This is extraordinary. It would be criminal not to show this to the wider world.” Harding hopes that maybe people with connections to Charles will see the film and more old footage will be unearthed.
Harding was also adamant that the film take a more bird’s eye view and briefly shift the focus away from Charles. The film’s perspective expands to include other farmers and how they are coping with this shift in their way of life. “I fought like hell to keep that in,” Harding says. “It shows that Charles’ footage is bigger than Charles. It’s a document of a way of life that is dying out and that’s for political reasons like Brexit, it’s for climate change, it’s for technological advancement.”
“It is an underdog story,” Harding says very simply about his film. A Life on the Farm is an ode to the creative spirit and content creation born out of the simple, intrinsically human desire to make art. The existence of Charles’ film touches on topics as far-reaching as rural mental health, death positivity, and outsider, DIY filmmaking. A Life on the Farm is a well-deserved celebration of Charles Carson.
Listen to the full interview with director Oscar Harding below and check out A Life on the Farm at Fantastic Fest!
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