How We Used to Live

Documentarian Paul Kelly returns to the festival with his latest collaboration with the band Saint Etienne following the loose trilogy of London films Finisterre What Have You Done Today Mervyn Day and This Is Tomorrow all recently published on BFI DVD In the decade since Finisterre Kelly has built a reputation as a distinctive voice in British cinema developing a lyrical style that draws on the psychogeography and people of the city and its culture How We Used To Live is effectively a prequel to Finisterre a meditation on London life today and a glance back at a receding Britain Using colour footage from the 1950s to the 1980s taken from the BFI National Archive the film covers the New Elizabethan age from the optimism of the postwar era to the dawn of Thatcherism Soundtracked by Saint Etiennes Pete Wiggs and scripted by the bands Bob Stanley with Travis Elborough the film is for anyone who has ever tried to understand their city Source LFF programme