This funny short film was shot in Camden Town in London in the early 2000’s when the area was still cool. Shot back in the days when filmmakers were experimenting with MiniDV inspired by Steven Soderbergh’s “Full Frontal”, the film captures the essence of Camden Town back in the 2000’s so it is worth watching for this reason alone.
The Death of My Agent was one of those films we made with no money and a lot of enthusiasm. We were experimenting with MiniDV and the freedom it gave us to shoot quickly and spontaneously. Watching it now, I am almost as interested in the streets behind the story as I am in the film itself. Camden becomes a character without us really trying to make it one.
Camden Market grew out of a run-down timber yard in the 1970s and became associated with London’s counterculture, from punks and hippies to independent traders, artists and designers. By the time we filmed The Death of My Agent there in the early 2000s, that slightly chaotic, alternative character was still very much alive.
I was there in the early 2000’s filming “The death of my agent” and a few years later, around 2010, I moved into a studio apartment up the road from the market in Belsize Park. I lived in the area for a decade before renting in that part of London became a rip off.Literally.
By the mid 2000’s, I remember seeing Amy Winehouse leaving the Hawley Arms pub or walking in the early hours along the high street while I was on the number 24 bus going home.In recent years, Camden Town has undergone many changes, such as the redevelopment of the Hawley Wharf area and the renovation of Camden Lock Market. The area is now more popular with tourists than locals and attracts around 28 million visitors a year.
Camden Town has lost its appeal. 170 new luxury homes – of which less than twenty classify as affordable housing- and to me, the area now feels busy, overpriced, polluted and far less welcoming
Camden may still look unique to visitors, but for those of us who knew it before the huge redevelopment and mass tourism, something has definitely disappeared. I watch The Death of My Agent now and realise that, completely unintentionally, we captured a little piece of Camden that no longer exists.
