Dad's Stick

Radio 4 did a series called A History Of The World In 100 Objects but this is more or less a biography in three. Dad's Stick is a fascinating portrait of an individual who, like many others, kept things around because they "might come in handy".

John Smith's film has hypnotic colour fields, touches of prison-industrial chic, an accretion of memory, an accumulation of anecdote.

There are layers here, some quasi-sedimentary, others sentimental, text over images and sometimes singing over that - newer words to older tunes, electrical tape on string. It's got a very clear handle on its subject, and is well worth tracking down. In five efficiently used minutes it touches on enough topics in a sufficiently interesting way that it could find a home in almost any festival strand, so it's commended to programmers everywhere - you know, just in case.