Tim Carlier’s Paco wanders with sound recordist Manny as he drifts through Adelaide, Australia (as Leon muses, like a leaf—but perhaps more like a freelancer) in search of a lost radio mic. The film had its UK premiere on the second night of the 3rd Clapham International Film Festival.

Tim stays in the cinema for a while and talks to everyone. Sam liked the soundtrack, Tim tells him to listen to The Empty Threats. Tim follows me outside. I apologise for bringing him outside.

TC: That’s all good.

We begin.

BJ: Are you a serious filmmaker, Tim?

TC: I think—uh—yes. I would say that now. I would say serious in that I am a filmmaker but not serious in terms of what I make.

BJ: They didn’t roll out the red carpet for you. Are you aggrieved by that?

He laughs.

TC: That’s fine. That’s fine.

BJ: Flatters got one yesterday!

TC: Uh, I think—I had a screening of Paco that was like—when we first released it, or when we first finished it, to—uh—in Adelaide where it was made. And that was, like, a really beautiful moment, like a big community moment, like—’cause everybody was on-screen. And I think a similar thing happened here yesterday with Shoulders so like, nobody—

He laughs again.

TC: Nobody in London was in the film, I don’t think. So yeah. That’s absolutely fine. I think I’m done with red carpets for a while.

BJ: I’ve seen the film described as a ‘friends make a film’ film. Would you embrace that moniker?

TC: Yeah! Absolutely.

BJ: Is that unfair?

TC: It is very much a ‘friends make a film’ film. Um, I think—yeah, some people might take issue with that, I don’t know, but, like—uh, I—through the course of working in the film industry, like, that is where a lot of my friendships come from. Most of my friends work in film. And, that—like—is the sense of community that I was kind of trying to get across in Paco. So… yeah. Friends make a film, that’s what every film should be. Every film should be friends making a film—um—by whatever means they can.

BJ: I—Yeah. I think the community thing really comes across. Could you, like—I mean you’ve brought a small corner of Adelaide to London—could you make a case for the niche in filmmaking? Is that something you’d embrace?

TC: The niche? Hundred percent. I think—uh—people get really caught up, and I’m guilty of this as well, in like—you have to make films in a specific way, you have to—like—get funding in a specific way or do this or that. And I think we’re at a point where you can just… make a film. You have the equipment, everybody kind of has the stuff to do it. It’s just, like, having an idea and a means to do it. And I think, Paco, part of it, the funding we got was experimental screen funding so we kind of went into it with, like, an experimental mentality—like, these are the rules of how we’re going to make it, this is how we’re going to achieve that. So, yeah. That was like—I would say, like, there are so many ways to make a film. Don’t let money or anything else stop you. You can just kind of do it.

BJ: Awesome. Okay, to conclude—you have, like, a hundred names on your poster.

TC: Yep.

BJ: If I just read a few—

TC: Yep.

BJ: Could you tell me a bit about each person?

TC: Yeah absolutely.

BJ: Olivia Carletti.

TC: Uh—Liv—um—is in the second band scene when they—when the music video director, Connor, finally bursts through the door, she’s the one who says ‘You’re so late! We only pay them for the hour!’. Liv is another friend from Adelaide who is kind of in the music scene but—kind of just, like, a friend who was around and she was like ‘You’re making this thing let me be in it!’.

BJ: Yoz Mensch?

TC: Yoz Mensch is the time traveller!

BJ: Awesome!

TC: Yeah! Yoz is one of the greats. Yeah. I love working with Yoz. And Yoz, recently, was in London for the Edinburgh fringe—well, was in Edinburgh for the Edinburgh fringe but, like, was passing through London—and, at the time of making the film—uh—we didn’t know each other super well, we’d kind of, like, been bouncing around each other in Adelaide for years but—um, yeah—since the film we’ve become very very close friends.

BJ: Cheryl… Cheryl Crabtree?

TC: Cheryl Crabtree is one of… the people… at the… uh… at the boom in the stone sequence. Um, so thankfully we had a lot of people turn up that day which was really lovely and then we asked them again to come to the—to the big band scene at the end. Uh, not all of them did come—

We both laugh. Been there.

TC: A lot of people couldn’t make it that day. But Cheryl came and she brought her husband, Barry Crabtree, who’s also in the credits—uh—and so he is one of two people throughout the film who only appear in that sequence.

BJ: Um, and Tim Carlier.

TC: Tim Carlier is me—uh—and I’m…

He thinks.

TC: A guy from Adelaide.

BJ: You going anywhere? Any final thoughts?

TC: Um, no, this has been lovely. It’s always nice to show the film—um—I really like watching it. I think—uh—for me it’s a really special experience to kind of—watch—it’s almost like a time capsule of a very specific moment in time, a very specific group of friends, and a very specific city. So um, it’s always nice to, kind of, be brought to that and I’m really glad we captured it the way that we did.

BJ: Tim Carlier, guy from Adelaide. Thank you.