A film featuring the York Street Artist Purpleman is being updated and will be shown again soon to to mark his life and work.
Michael Todd, the man behind the world famous character, known for his charity work and performances on Stonegate and the Shambles in York, died just before Christmas.
The artist Rob Martin made the film with him ten years ago. He says he is editing it into a slicker and sharper production with new material
At the moment there is no confirmation of venues where it will be shown but obviously one place will be in York.
Rob has been speaking to YorkMix Radio’s Sunday Late Show, an interview to be played out this weekend (Sunday 18 January 10pm)
“The original film, made back in 2015, was called The Chronicles of Purpleman and started with people being questioned about what they thought of him.
“The idea was this purple coloured man had come from another planet, a purple planet, and he ended up in Yorkshire. So the beginning of the film was him going around looking for inner happiness. It was his vibe. Everything’s groovy he would say.”
The film was shown at City screen, and raised money to help Syrian refugees. Rob says it was also shown in Glastonbury, at the fringe.
“He didn’t come to Glastonbury to promote the film. He sent the costume and the purple paint to a pub called the King Arthur and I ended up promoting it dressing up as the Purpleman myself.”
Purpleman liked to see Rob in his costume and once got him to put it on and pose as him in Stonegate too.
We asked Rob how he thinks the film will look when he’s finished the edit.
“Basically the original is 77 minutes long, so it feels better to cut it down between 52 minutes and an hour, a shorter version will be even more slick, even more tight.
“There’s quite a lot of scenes in it that are quite funny, the daftness of people’s reactions. Then there is new stuff to add, footage not seen before. There’s a clip where people seemed quite shocked when this purple man was trying to talk to them and then they didn’t really talk back. They just stood there silent.”
Rob says he thinks he will add shots filmed in London, in Kensington and Chelsea, when Purpleman had raised money for the community of Grenfell Tower and he took £4000 pounds to give the community there.
He says: “I filmed him on a train and that looks very cinematic in the way that he’s just sat there. One thing noticeable is the film was made before 2020. People have changed a lot since the pandemic. The vibe of the time is captured as well. And I think we’ve forgotten how people in Britain were before.”
YorkMix will let you know when the new version is ready and where it will be shown.
