We’re currently planning for a new project in conjunction with Exeter University. It’s a 30 minute film to examine the works of famous Cornish Poet, Jack Clemo, who lived in the clay area of St Austell. Jack lived an interesting life and is certainly a controversial character from the research we’ve done thus far. The documentary will feature as part of a larger project that is being put together for a conference on May 31st-1st June, which will pull together some of the country’s top scholars & academics.
The film itself will feature readings of Clemo’s poems themselves by some Cornish celebrities as well as interviews with living people who knew him. We’ll also visit his home village of Goonamarris and look at the Trethosa Chapel, that he frequently visited, which is still in beautiful pristine condition.
Clemo’s work is considered to be visionary and inspired by the rugged Cornish landscape even though he become deaf at the age of 19 and went blind 20 years later. He died in 1994 aged 78. There is a small museum located in a dedicated Memorial Room at Trethosa Chapel, where he was both christened and married, featuring his life and works and which is run by volunteers. His literary papers, including manuscripts of prose and poetry works, are held by the University of Exeter.
