Last year, I took a break from Pride’s Purge after spending the last year finishing up my Master’s in Library Science. It was a tough decision, but I think the right one, as I was burnt out after spending the last three or four years working toward my degree, which I started only a few months before COVID.
My last time behind the camera was in August 2022, when I made the trip back to Pride Ridge to film some interviews with a family historian, and my aunt Roberta as well as my uncle Bill. Bill and Roberta are in their 90’s, and live in house that is much unchanged since the 1950’s. There is no air conditioning, which is probably fine the other 11 months of the year, but in August, it gets hot. Sweating, maybe a little nervous, I didn’t quite find what I was looking for during that shoot—due to my own lack of preparedness, not pulling obvious threads, and needing to brush up on my interview skills. I left a bit dejected. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for—when it was really right there in front of my face the whole time, I just couldn’t see it.
I returned to West Virginia in June after my graduation to go on a bike trip with my cousins on the Greenbriar River Trail. I needed to go on an adventure that was not this documentary for a change, but oddly it was in the same state, with more or less the same people who had been helping me film thus far. My impressions from the trip were the haze from the Canadian wildfires, the rain, the cold, and the snakes. Although it didn’t lead to the profound insights I was hoping for regarding Pride’s Purge, it was good to connect family and destress post grad school.
In the months since I returned home, it has been difficult to figure out where I want to go with this doc. The plan had always been to travel to the UK for research and interviews. I think that is still probably going to happen, but I had hoped to be able to pay for it myself. I was initially thinking about multiple trips, with the possibility of doing reenactments. Now, I would hope to be able to get what I need in one small, 7-10 day tour of archives, battlefields, and estates.
In times like this it has historically been important for me to pull back and concentrate on what I have. In three years of shooting, I should have enough to compile a (hopefully) compelling trailer. I have the skeleton of a crowdfunding project already done regarding rewards: I have official Pride’s Purge t-shirts, hoodies, stickers, and beer coozies, thanks to my friend Peter and my cousin Amanda. Speaking of which, I also have a core group of backers that have given me their love and support along the way. And, I have some experience crowdfunding, doing archival research, and making movies. The pieces are there, I just need to make the next move.
While I build up my reserves, I have been doing some slow, steady reading of Diane Purkiss’ The English Civil War: A People’s History. Next on my list is the diary of Samuel Pepys, who might have crossed paths with Thomas Pride, and who left one of the few surviving accounts of what day to day life was like in 17th century London. I have also discovered old English woodblock prints, which dotted some of the primary sources I’ve used for research, and have really influenced the aesthetic I’m going for with this film. This summer, I made some linocut prints of some scenes that I will be animating in After Effects. It has been a fun process and has helped sharpen my focus on the kind of story I want to tell. I’m hoping to do a few more in my spare time this fall.
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Pride's Purge 