Over the summer, Graham Fellows, the writer, director and star of Father Earth, was playing a gig in Derbyshire as his most famous character, John Shuttleworth. This gig was at a cavern affectionately known as the Devil's Arse, had to be ended half-way through on a literal cliffhanger after a gig-goer at the top of the cave lost their footing and was dangling 100ft over the gorge from only a sycamore tree.
This encounter, which ended with no casualties luckily, with any comedian you might be thinking ‘well there's the first ten minutes of material for his next show', also helps highlight the central message of Father Earth: environmentally, we are dangling over a precipice and the Earth is both the only thing supporting us and potentially about to be dragged down with us.
Father Earth is the true story of Fellows' attempt to help save the planet, by converting a derelict church on the remote Orkneys Islands (just off the north coast of Scotland for those not in the know). It is a decade-and-a-bit-long journey of one-man and his fancy electric car trying to prove that everyone can indeed do their bit, but it's also about Graham and his father Derek, who, not always willingly, accompanies him on this journey while confronting his potentially impending demise.
If it all sounds a bit grim and worthy, it's worth noting, Fellows appears both as himself and his comic creation, Shuttleworth, keeping the film light and providing comedic highlights such as a performance at a retirement home where Fellows is upstaged by Derek falling asleep. He knows tone through-and-through, making sure there are no moments of whiplash but gently drifting between amusing and melancholy with ease.
If anything, its problem is that it is too slight. As a comedic tale, it is gently amusing throughout but there are no real laugh-out-loud moments. As an eco-fable, it never really drills (if you'll pardon the fracking pun) deep into either the causes or active solutions to the climate crisis, as a treatise on ageing and father-son relationships, it is perhaps most effective but once again, hardly breaking new ground.
But yet, in spite of this, it still completely and utterly succeeds. It is a truly independent project, delivered with a professional sheen but without losing that scratchy spirit. There is a joy in seeing what appears to be a completely uncompromised project. Even if it's one that doesn't ever create a fully cinematic project, with its frequent handheld and phone camera footage, it seems very much suited to the home environment.
This is still a film for watching in a dark room with strangers, especially if you can get to one of Fellows' current tour of small cinemas of the UK where he is giving Q&A sessions following the screenings. This is a real labour-of-love and to see it in such a personal environment would be only apt.
Early on in Father Earth, Fellows apologises as he attempts to film himself while driving that his phone keeps falling over because he “didn't bring (his) duct-tape”. Moments later, he is worried about attending an audition to play Eric Morecambe's father as it will take him away from his Orkneys project for a good while. The voice-over then interjects to relieve his fears by pointing out that Vic reeves got the role.
These few minutes summarise the charms of Father Earth best. There is a ramshackle quality to proceedings, as if everything is held together with tape and could all fall apart at a moment's notice. But Fellows, like Shuttleworth, is a delightful raconteur and he knows how to tell a tale, and this is one for the ages. It works not because the metaphor of him caring so deeply about his dying father much as he does the dying planet is subtle (if anything, it's directly spelled out) but because it is so sincerely heartfelt.
Father Earth is a story that no one else could tell, at least not with the same wit, care and attention. Not even Vic Reeves.
FATHER EARTH, the new feature film from Graham Fellows. is set to tour the UK Autumn 2022
