Hound + Filmmaker Q&A

Filmed entirely in Hackney and Stoke Newington with a cast that includes Daniel Hutchinson, Wayne Sleep, Hazel O'Connor and Toyah Wilcox HOUND creates visions in the life of Victorian vagrant poet Francis Thompson. The screening is followed by a Q&A with writer/director Chris Ward hosted by alternative comedian Paul Scahill. Who was Francis Thompson? Francis Thompson was born in Preston, Lancashire in December 18th, 1859 and studied medicine at Owens College in Manchester. However the medical profession held little interest to him but writing did. He moved to London in 1885 but found no success and was quickly reduced to selling matches and newspapers for a living. Ill health offered up opium as a solution and to this he quickly became addicted. In 1888 he sent some poems to the publishers of the Merrie England magazine, Wilfrid Meynell and his noted poet wife Alice, who quickly sought him out, arranged for his housing and medical treatment and encouraged him to write more. This culminated in the publication of 'Poems' in 1893, which included the seminal 'Hound Of Heaven,' acclaimed as a great work by many critics at the time Years of ill health, addiction and vagrancy had taken their toll. A suicide attempt was aborted by a vision he had of Thomas Chatterton, the teenage poet, who had committed suicide a century earlier. Francis Thompson died from tuberculosis aged 48 in November 1907.PT1H20M152025-04-06

Daniel Hutchinson

Wayne Sleep

Hazel O'Connor and Toyah Wilcox

Chris Ward

Hound + Filmmaker Q&A"Hound + Filmmaker Q&A"

Showtimes

April 6, 3:15 pm