Swandown (the movie) to premiere at the Abandon Normal Devices festival on 22/06/2012 in Manchester, followed by Q&A

Swandown
A film by Andrew Kötting

Abandon Normal Devices is delighted to present Swandown, a new film by Andrew Kotting, which will premiere during the Abandon Normal Devices festival in 2012.
SWANDOWN, is a travelogue and odyssey of Olympian ambition. The project is a poetic film-diary about encounter and culture. It is also an endurance test and pedal-marathon.

Andrew Kötting and Iain Sinclair pedaled a plastic swan-shaped pedalo (paddle boat) from the coast of Hastings to Hackney in East London, via the English inland waterways. Andrew’s daughter Eden joins the journey, along with invited guests, including Stewart Lee, Alan Moore and Dudley Sutton.

The action may in part be seen as an act of ‘dada performance’ or as a response to the spirit of Olympic diversity and ambition.

The journey and all that it entails are being documented on both film and video and presented as a 90-minute feature length experimental documentary. SWANDOWN will shoot for four weeks in and around East Sussex, Kent and London.

Producer Lisa Marie Russo says, “Kotting and Sinclair embarked on a madcap adventure that has taken on the high seas and entertained innocent passersby, engaged by the feckless inhabitants of an elegant fibreglass swan.”

Lizzie Francke, Senior Production Executive at the BFI Film Fund, says, “Maverick visionary, Andrew Kötting and eminent psychogeographer, Iain Sinclair’s quixotic journey through southern England aboard a giant swan is such an appealing proposition. SWANDOWN promises to be a provocative, playful and ultimately poetic cinematic delight and we’re delighted to be a part of it.”

Director: Andrew Kötting Producer: Lisa Marie Russo
Writers: Andrew Kotting and Iain Sinclair Executive Producer: Kate Ogborn
Featuring: Kotting, Sinclair, Eden Kotting Executive Producer: Marc Munden

The BFI Film Fund presents in association with The Channel 4 Britdoc Foundation, Abandon Normal Devices, Cornerhouse Artist Film, and Screen South