COMMON PEOPLE is a film shot entirely on Tooting Common in South London. The film weaves together six stories and over thirty characters to present a dramatic, humorous and sometimes magical tale of romance, crisis and adventure on one of London’s luscious commons.
Co-Directors Kerry Skinner and Stewart Alexander have lived beside Tooting Common in south London for over ten years: "We walk there every day, it's an essential oasis in the city; somewhere to de-stress, and recharge. It was on a walk across the common that we came up with the idea for our film, COMMON PEOPLE.”
The film has won several awards including the Independent Spirit Award at the Sedona International Film Festival and the ReelHeART International Film Festival. It was also nominated for Best Narrative Feature at the St Louis International Film Festival and was described as "A sweet and huge-hearted story of London life" by Guardian Film Critic Danny Leigh.
As the film is set on Tooting Common and many of the local residents acted as extras for the production, the directors wanted to arrange screenings in the Tooting area for local people. They approached the venue, The Bedford, which agreed that its Globe Theatre could be used for these local screenings. But despite being a large theatre, it did not have a high resolution projector powerful enough to be suitable for the screenings.
It had an unusual size of screen (3m wide by 2.3m high) and the projector needed to be sited 8m back behind the stalls.