G R I F F E N 2 0 2 3 | 1 0 Pianist and composer Will Bartlett (2000) is a musician with wide-ranging tastes and interests who divides his time between the UK and Germany. Fans of the Oxford Lieder Festival enjoyed a chance to catch up with him recently at the Holywell Music Room for the premiere of his new jazz-infused song cycle setting the poetry of Philip Larkin in what was the poet’s centenary year. It was performed by Will, Tony Kofi on saxophone, Ankita Saxena (spoken word) and legendary jazz singer, Norma Winstone. The event also launched a CD recording of the work that included an acknowledgement for Andrew Swarbrick’s assistance with the project. Andrew was for many years Abingdon’s Head of English, and is an expert and published author on the subject of Larkin and his poetry. Adrian Lo (2010) is a classically trained violinist who also creates music in a range of genres and contexts. He has issued a number of solo albums and composed music for films, many in collaboration with Tian Ji (see below). Based in Berlin, Adrian is now focusing on audio production for film and television, and working as a sound designer and re-recording mixer. Abingdon’s Film Unit (AFU) has been a feature of life at Park Road for nearly 20 years, and many of its alumni have made their way into the media in one form or another. Filmmaker Tian Ji (2010) now works as a journalist with Associated Press. Based in AP’s Bangkok bureau, he is putting his documentary experience to good use as a frontline journalist, covering news stories across the region. Recent assignments have taken him to Korea and Cambodia, where he covered the Association of South East Asian Nations Conference. His reports have been shown on news outlets around the world as well as The New York Times and USA Today websites. Tian has also continued to make films. His latest is a beautiful new documentary called The Re-education of Ji Zhihao in which Tian follows his uncle to a remote Chinese village to explore with him the tender bonds and painful memories of his time there during the Maoist revolution. Tian retains strong links with those he encountered at Abingdon. The music for the film was composed by Tian’s contemporary, Nick Ereaut (2008); the sound was the work of former AFU tutor Mikkel Eriksen, while one of the film’s editing consultants was ex-AFU cinematography tutor Jonas Mortensen. Tian’s new film is currently doing the rounds of major film festivals and has already been shortlisted for several awards, including the 2022 British Short Film Awards. When he was in the AFU, Tom Wakeling (2006) was the cinematographer for a film shot in Cambodia in support of a charity founded by renowned Abingdon English teacher Rodney Mearns. After studying design at Brunel, Tom established a career as a freelance film director, including work in the commercial sphere. His films have won numerous awards and his latest – Pattern – looks set to repeat the trick. Described as a “dreamscape achieved using a unique in-camera lighting effect”, this visually arresting short was filmed on 16mm on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset. Tom said, “We all get lost in patterns. For some of us they can be totally consuming. I wanted to make a film about the feeling of being totally consumed by one thought. A thought that endlessly repeats, that spirals out of control until there’s nothing of you left. The light effect technique reflects this repetition; it is one singular beam duplicated and then stacked back in time. The light itself is real – no CGI was used in its creation. All the effects are captured in camera.” In his time at School, Rob O’Kelly (2014) made Warped, the AFU’s first music video. He is working as a cinematographer after studying at the National Film and Television School. His CV lists an impressive range of work, including narrative films, commercials and music videos. At the London Film Festival in October, he enjoyed a chance reunion with AFU tutor Colin O’Toole, who guided Rob through his first experience of making a music video back in 2014. Tom Swarbrick (2005) spent his year in the AFU trying to make a film about Sunningwell Cricket Club, before eventually deciding documentary filmmaking was not for him. That clearly hasn’t held him back in terms of forging a successful media career. After spells in radio with the BBC, and as adviser to Theresa May in Downing Street, Tom returned to LBC, where he won awards as National Radio Journalist of the Year and International Reporter of the Year. He is now the host of LBC’s daily Drivetime show, as well as making regular appearances on This Morning, BBC, Sky and NBC News. Paddy Garrick (2002) left Abingdon the year before the AFU was established in 2003, but this didn’t prevent him from becoming a multi-award winning post-production specialist with True Vision Productions. Many of the programmes Paddy works on are documentaries covering aspects of human rights, and following the Reithian principle of informing, educating and entertaining. The latest of the many awardwinning productions with which Paddy has been associated is The Missing Children uncovering the scandal of Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes. In November 2022, the programme won the Grierson Award for Best History Documentary. Alex Ingham Brooke (2006) cut his teeth in the AFU’s animation department, but now combines work in photography, fashion and documentary. His films have been included in screenings, exhibitions and film festivals internationally, while his work in fashion has been featured in Vogue, Dazed, and Interview magazines. He has shot commercial films for JW Anderson, Swarovski and Adidas. Michael Bicarregui (2014) was also a pillar of AFU animation when he was at Abingdon, and now combines freelance work in the film industry with his own independent filmmaking ventures. His most recent film, currently in its final phase of production, is a twenty-five-minute short called Overpowered, about a school for superheroes. Overpowered features music by Michael’s brother and fellow AFU alumnus David Bicarregui (2020), Henry ChurchmanDavies (2018) as a supporting member of the cast, cinematography and visual effects by Josh Sarphie (2015), sound recording by Jack Bradley (see page 11), artwork by Ben Oliver (2015) and Edmund Cornforth (2014) and production by another Bicarregui brother, medical student Peter Bicarregui (2018). Will Bartlett and Tom Richards reunite in Oxford AFU tutor Colin O’Toole with Rob O’Kelly at the London Film Festival
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