Scene From The Other Side: Chris Petit

Chris Petit is one of the best kept secrets of British film culture: A renaissance man who, as a Time Out film critic, followed the call to arms of the French New Wave and became a director himself with the late 70s monochrome classic Radio On. It opened up a view of the English landscape from under the glass of a car windscreen; neon-bathed urban drifters haunting the time-warped provinces of the west country, propelled it seems, only by the inspired post-punk soundtrack.

Despite its effectiveness as a modern time capsule, the zeitgeist was less than sympathetic and the tide turned against the film-maker as auteur. Petit crafted some intriguing mainstream thrillers (PD James, Agatha Christie, Berlin noir) which failed to register with the public and then turned to fiction and wrote Robinson, a disturbing novel about underground film making and the bohemian Soho of the 1980s. Since then he has divided his time between thriller writing, book reviewing and directing experimental films, often collaborating with writer Iain Sinclair.

TX: SkyArts

2009/29mins/1.78:1/Digibeta/Colour & B&W