“Your film has a very captivating atmosphere. I am very proud that you have chosen my music to tell this story. very proud!”
– Guillaume Chaucheprat pakka-music.com/
“This is an absolutely amazing piece. Very powerful. Absolutely beautiful. Iβm very proud to be a part of it and I wish you much success.”
– Di Bauer (andromeda recordings group)
I must have been two or three years of age when my grandfather first lifted me up by my hips, with an intent to demonstrate and inspire. He leant his chest against my back so that I would not fall, holding my knee length cotton socks as he calmly inhaled his tobacco pipe, asking me with exhaled plumes of sweet spice, βWhat do you see, Davey Boy? Tell ya Grandpaβ¦β
He was proud to own a 1940βs ex-council house that sat last in a row upon an embankment of farmland and school fields on an estate in the market town of Darlington, North East England. Not yet pillaged and commercialized inch by inch, the surrounding land in the 1980s lent this humble home an expansive view as I gained balance against the windowpane – excitedly reacting to breath against glass and the sound vibrations made by my tippy-toes of stiff leather buckle shoes as he gestured beyond his treasured garden, past the greenhouse that brimmed with vine tomatoes and trellises of grapes (seeded for his bubbling pipes of home brewed wine) as I followed his finger to a point that my mind could not have placed, without his guidance.
Beyond his small avenues of vegetables and prizewinning onions, he aided me in ignoring the fishpond adorned with floating water lilies, to overlook the colorfully decorated birdhouse and spinning windmills that naturally caught my infantile attention. Pushing those observations to look beyond his routinely varnished fence, and over the rolling green fields – farther than my unaided mind could wander; to the horizon, where seemingly to a child the world must surely end where the sky began?
Finally, I saw a lone oak tree at the centre of the horizon. It crowned a patchwork of unspoiled grassland and cornfields. Grandpa called it; βThe Jockeyβs Capβ because of how the sunlight illuminated the trees canopy, and cast to the ground a brim, akin to a traditional equestrianβs helmet. βIf you reached that tree, Davey Boy,β he said, ββ¦do you know what you might find?β
I remembered this from thereon in, a metaphor that grew stronger between us as each season changed to the next – learning more from him about the world each weekend we were together. He was a grandfather in the traditional sense, and layered an imparting of wisdom, over these formative years – through patience that never waned.
From cutting an apple through its center to expose the five pointed star, to snapping a carrot in half to show fractals that echo through all of natureβs forms. Three. Four. Five. βYouβll know your onions when you get to that tree, David.β he would mysteriously say. Six. Seven. Eight. I could tell him by then – through ardent use of his encyclopedias and readers digests β just what lay beyond the horizon of his Jockeyβs Cap. The Pennines. Northwest England, across to Ireland, and on out to the Atlantic Ocean, over the Americas and beyond.
Each weekend visit, as he made my morning porridge, or cooked vats of chipped potatoes until the evening darkness fell upon our view β there across the horizon, our Jockeyβs Cap, was always in sight to prompt my inquiring mind, to dare to believe and to dream, that anything could be possible. By aged nine, he had started to place a rug across the bitumen roof of his coal-house, where we would climb up to sit on a clear day and view our Jockeys Cap, which was somehow more tangible in the open air, yet retained its distance and mystery nonetheless. βAye, youβll know your onions when you get to that tree!β he would softly whisper. It was a narrative all our own, and he made it known that imagination, magic and discovery were only as far away as our next wonder or hope that we held for my own horizonsβ¦
Then I reached fourteen, where a sharp nosedive into catacombs parted us with a deathbed vow in which he swore and screamed, as he clutched my arm – that if there were such a thing as life after death, then he would come back to let me know all and everything. He was certain of it, and he made clear his desperation for the welfare of my soul, in premonitions, warnings and signs.
His death from lung cancer was a quick and macabre decay that leveled all of my belief in magic to the ground. It left me vulnerable and bereft of a spiritual and moral guardian, and wide open to the ravages of malevolent, exploitative and manipulative predators β reason enough then, that it took him only four more years until he did indeed, make contact.
This is my film on life after death and one remarkable manβs signs to his grandson.
“Incredibly touching and powerful and moving and beautifully edited. I love the cinematography, the flashback to your childhood, the soundtrack, along with the visuals and your dialogue… you are truly a genius with film making.”
– Sartorial Girl www.sartorialgirl.tumblr.com/
A Film By David V Barron
He was absolutely a man of presence, with these great insights and a fascinating intelligence. Polish in origin, he fled to Great Britain after Germany’s invasion of Poland along with 160,000 other members of the Polish Army who were attached to the British army, alongside British forces in 1939. He had a will and integrity of steel, and had an outstanding capacity for inspiration, sharing many a story with loving patience that I will forever remember.
His effect on my life and my development as a human being has been and continues to be, absolutely remarkable.
You see, he had an unwavering belief in the afterlife… that if you die when we shed our cosmic space suitsβ¦ our bodies, your soul actually transcends this dense vibration that we are all experiencing.
What happened after his death was just astounding, absolutely it was a new paradigm for me, of consciousness and perception of the world.
It changed me; I went through the looking-glass⦠I fell down a rabbit hole.
I have felt compelled and guided in making this film, which became all the more profound with the extraordinary synchronicity of receiving twenty of his cine reels, which I wasn’t aware existed.
Here in this film, I talk to my partner about him and using just a few of his reels, I have been able to scratch at the surface of an amazing man, a magical childhood and a wonderful inspiration.
Using a multilayered verbal, symbolic and visual narrative, this film concentrates purely on his spiritual insights, predictions, inspirations and beliefs and poses, among many other questions…
What of the afterlife, of life AFTER death and what of this world that we inhabit within our current, limited perceptions?
My grandfather told me on his death-bed…
βIf there is life after death, I will come back and I will let you knowβ
and as this film shows, he did indeed DO just that and much more.
Making this short film has been a deeply personal and cathartic process but my friends very kindly insist that it has a wider appeal and an important message, so if you would like to view it, then please, click on any of its images.
Personally, it has mentally prepared me for the next phase in my development and direction. I have learned so many lessons and I have been on such a long journey but only now are things finally starting to make sense to me.
We are each the very opposite of ordinary, we are all, each and every one of us, extraordinary spiritual beings. Everything is about the light, everything is cyclical… and we all come to our own full circle, eventually.
Light and LOVE Xxx
David
Title and Credit Music composed and produced by Guillaume Chaucheprat.
The Light – Lyrics were written and performed by Simon Binkenborn. (P) & (C) by Shah-Music Digital – SMD2174
Selected Reviews:-
“The lights, sounds, transitioning images, shadows make the film mysterious, suggesting the presence of something heavenly. You have succeeded to bring us into the mood of ‘life after life’. I am so much enriched by this film. I have watched several times, each viewing gave me new impressions, new shivers, and discovered new lights and new messages’”
– Krisztina Bagamery Communication and Medical Marketing professional
“Wow, I want to thank you for sharing this amazing tribute you made of such an interesting and inspiring and deep thinking man that your grandfather truly was. He loved you so much and still maintained that special bond with you even after his death. I loved your imagery…..the kite, the rainbow, the gardens, the books showing our curiosity in seeking knowledge of our universe and the afterlife, the chess game with the chess pieces showing how inevitably our physical lives will end. I love how you blurred and slowed down the past footage of your grandfather and your childhood self…it has an idyllic dreamlike quality that enforces to the watcher the loving protective relationship between you and your grandfather and also times that have past. The footage where your grandfather is lifting you high above the ground can also symbolize his enabling you to see or be aware of higher spiritual things. I’m really very impressed with what you have done.”
– Jennifer Ellis
“You ooze talent! I think a lot of people could relate to the relationship between you and your grandad. Such a powerful insight into the beliefs your grandad and yourself shared. You really know how to keep the audience captivated, such creativity. Your like a technical genius when it comes to editing etc. The spiritual meaning came across beautifully but it also aired a magical sense. Beautifully amazing David xx”
– Claire Hignett
“A very elegant and heartwarming story put together with the class that I expect and love about you but with a raw and personal feel to it, words fail me but that was very very heartwarming and at points, I was nearly in tears. Well done mate, very well done.”
– Dean Barnes Photographer
“Truly and Utterly AMAZING my friend!! I have goosebumps and I adore you and is completely humbled by you sharing this with me. Thank You!”
– Andre Duvenhage
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