Well this was yet another quite remarkable year. It's funny that taken over a long period my life may be regarded as unremarkable, but each individual year seems to be a bit of a roller coaster.
First the bad news. My mother died. I suppose it was quite a good way to go. Death was very sudden and I don't think she knew too much about what was going on. There are probably better ways to go but she was 80
Better news. I continue to progress as a video maker. A version of my Dogs Gone was shown at the East End Film Festival in the Spring. One of my videos has been watched by more than 4,000 people on Youtube.
I had a great Guerilla theatre event at which I showed four of my videos at the end of November. I even started to make some money out of videos. This year perhaps a third of my income has come from video making.
I also started to feel more comfortable as a freelance journalist and seem to be getting a fairly steady amount of work, which I think of as quite an achievement. I am also working on a number of quite interesting projects. I do not expect them to make me a great deal of money but I am considerably less worried about not having a job than I might have been a few years back.
It's hard to see how the business side could have gone much better. Artistically, I am probably less satisfied. In 2008 when I made Dogs Gone I thought it was the best documentary I could ever make.
In 2009 I think I made several better documentaries but I am not really satisfied with any of them. Maybe next year I will finally make something I think is good and that everyone else out there agrees is good. Let's hope so.
Whatever, 2010 certainly does not look like it's going to be a dull year.