Personal Documentaries

The films below have chronicled my life and interests at various times.
In chronological order from 1970 – 2008.

FOR ALL THE IMMIGRANTS IN ENGLAND 1972

This personal diary film was made over two years, 1970-72. Shot on a couple of Russian Standard 8mm cameras, it chronicles Rumsey’s life and interests in Stoke Newington, North London. The film includes sketches on Edward Heath, Old Age, Student Demos, Astrology and the Stoke Newington Gardener’s Guild, and includes a cameo voice-over performance from the director Terence Davies.

THE HEIST 1974

Once upon a time there was the British Film Institute Production Board, an organisation that could if it liked support a project financially.
Once upon a time there was a film-maker with a dream that the BFI did not share…
And so in true Agit-Prop tradition it was determined that film stock needed to be liberated…

A CATALOGUE OF ADJUSTED PERCEPTION 1996

The realisation that at forty four ‘middle age’ is no longer a distant concept, but the here-and-now of a summer’s afternoon, prompts the film-maker (Digby Rumsey) to reflect on his life and career over the last quarter of a century. With the accumulated perceptions of hindsight he addresses the camera and confronts his past. This A-Z of ideas and associations juggle the public and private, the personal and professional, pitting these against the mainstream of accepted conventions – both of family life and the film industry in Britain today.

MY MUM AND DAD 1971

Rumsey, at the age of 19, interviews his parents as if it’s twenty years later and he’s become a famous filmmaker.