PRINCIPAL CAST AND CREW
Director, Producer and Film Editor – Stewart Hajdukiewicz
Co-Producers – Patrick Kingwell and Malcolm Taylor
Driver and Stills Photographer – Barry Marsh
Featured Contributors:
Anthony Murphy
Hugh Butterworth
Ralph Allwood
Vic Gammon
Michael Heaney
Alun Howkins
Katie Howson
Malcolm Taylor
Jessica Smart
Readings by Michael Mears
'George Butterworth' played and danced by Matthew Cowan
'Julia Butterworth' and 'Young George' played by Shaunagh and Jesse Perity
Music by:
The London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Adrian Boult (Lyrita), Roderick Williams and Iain Burnside, Mark Stone with Stephen Barlow, Peta Webb, Walter Pardon, Bob and Ron Copper, Gordon Hall, May Bradley, Laura Smyth and Ted Kemp, Vic Gammon, The Wilson Family, The Witches of Elswick, Matthew Atherton.
PRODUCTION OVERVIEW
The filmmaker gained exclusive access to the complete Butterworth folk song manuscripts and related audio-visual materials held in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML), including Cecil Sharp's stunning pre-World War One photographic portraits of English folk singers.
The production has also benefited from the kind participation of other custodians of key Butterworth collections held in the UK. This includes the Bodleian Library and Trinity College Archive, Oxford University, and the Eton College Library as well as at the Brotherton Library, Leeds University, Aysgarth School and the Durham County Record Office. This has enabled a treasure trove of archival material relating to George Butterworth to be gathered for use in the film including letters, photographs, concert programmes, contemporary reviews, music scores and obituaries.
George Butterworth left instructions for his folk song manuscripts to be left in the care of his friend Ralph Vaughan Williams in the event of his death. Fittingly ALL MY LIFE'S BURIED HERE has received support from the Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust (this is the first film project ever to be awarded RVW Trust funding) as well as from a number of individuals known to the filmmaker who have given help and support in a variety of ways to ensure the process of research, filming and editing could proceed to completion.
The filmmaker established a close collaborative partnership with Anthony Murphy, author of 'Banks of Green Willow, the Life and Times of George Butterworth' (Cappella Archive, 2012). During filming, the filmmaker recorded in-depth interviews with Mr Murphy as well as filming discussions with leading professional authorities on Butterworth and his era including Vic Gammon, Michael Heaney, Malcolm Taylor, Katie Howson, Ralph Allwood and the late Alun Howkins.
The production travelled to Pozières, northern France, to film the George Butterworth memorial ceremony, a remarkable annual event organised by locals in the village closest to the spot where Butterworth was killed. In Pozières the filmmaker interviewed the late Hugh Butterworth, George's first cousin, who gave a candid and moving interview.
Apart from France the trail of George Butterworth's story has led the production to locations all across the UK, including York and Aysgarth where George spent much of his childhood; West Kirby, on The Wirral, where Butterworth's 'The Banks of Green Willow' was premiered in 1914 under conductor and local boy Adrian Boult; Durham where records are held relating to Butterworth's time serving in the Durham Light Infantry in World War One; Leeds where Butterworth's 'Rhapsody, 'A Shropshire Lad'' was premiered at the Town Hall in 1913; Southwold in Suffolk and the area around Diss in south Norfolk where Butterworth and Vaughan Williams collected folk songs together; Eton College and Trinity College, Oxford; Cheyne Gardens in Chelsea, south-west London where Butterworth lived after graduating from Oxford University; and the area around Lewes in East Sussex where Butterworth collected numerous folk songs from local singers and musicians.
A series of evocative reconstructed scenes pertinent to Butterworth's story were filmed in locations in the UK and in France with the help and participation of artist, performer and morris dancer Matthew Cowan, plus Shaunagh and Jesse Perity and Vincent Beuvry. The actor Michael Mears performs readings throughout the film, including the letters of Vaughan Williams and George Butterworth's letters home from the frontline.
ALL MY LIFE'S BURIED HERE contains a wealth of carefully selected music. In addition to the classic 1975 Lyrita recordings of Butterworth's orchestral works performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Adrian Boult, the Filmmaker has secured exclusive new performances by Roderick Williams and Iain Burnside of Butterworth's Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad. Distinguished traditional singer Peta Webb sings folk songs from George Butterworth's handwritten folk song manuscripts. Outstanding recordings secured for the film including singer Mark Stone performing a rarely heard song composed by Butterworth in 1911; plus featured music from leading folk musicians Laura Smyth and Ted Kemp, Vic Gammon, the Witches of Elswick and the Wilson Family. There are also classic recordings from traditional singers including Walter Pardon and Bob and Ron Copper, May Bradley and Gordon Hall.
