‘My stories begin in Hackney’: Author Iain Sinclair to release film about retracing his ancestor’s journey to Peru
Sinclair and his daughter’s expedition follows their relative’s journey ‘as closely as possible’. Image: Grant Gee
Renowned Hackney writer Iain Sinclair is set to release a new documentary charting his great-grandfather’s journey to the Amazon in the late 19th century.
The release of The Gold Machine on 2 September coincides with the publication of Sinclair’s book of the same name, and it explores themes of family and colonial history.
Screenings followed by Q&As with Sinclair and the film’s director, Grant Gee, will take place at the Hackney Picturehouse on 6 September and The Castle Cinema on 7 September.
Sinclair told the Citizen: “We made an expedition to Peru to retrace as closely as possible the journey that my great-grandfather made in 1891, to the sources of the Amazon and the Rio Perene.”
The documentary follows semi-fictionalised versions of Sinclair and his daughter Farne as they traverse Peru, attempting to retrace their forebear’s footsteps from 1891.
The journey itself was real, with Gee joining the pair on their travels to document the experience.
While much of the content of the film is factual, the opening is fictional.
The set-up is based on Sinclair’s life and introduces a character living in Hastings who is struggling with writer’s block before happening upon a book about his great-grandfather.
The journey is real, but the film gives it a ‘fictional framework’. Image: Grant Gee
Although Sinclair was present for the duration of the trip, he doesn’t appear in the film.
“It’s as if my daughter is there on her own and is researching and sending back bits of video or letters from which the story is constructed,” Sinclair continued.
“The base story is real, but then the film gives it a fictional framework.”
The author said the film also parallels the “expeditions” he takes around Hackney for his writing, drawing a contrast between those and the adventure that he and his daughter had in Peru.
Prior to this film, much of his work was based on his life in the borough, and even for this more faraway adventure, he drew a lot of inspiration from the place he calls home.
“All my stories begin in Hackney,” he said. “The expeditions I’ve made around Hackney, or around the M25, or River Lea, or any of those funny, strange expeditions I’ve done for my own books, were paralleled by the grander one undertaken by my great-grandfather.
“So in a sense, I’m doing the same thing as he did, in a more dramatic way, by crossing the Andes and writing these reports. There’s a kind of parallel between these two worlds.”
Farne Sinclair has also created a podcast series based on her and her father’s adventure, called In Tropical Lands.
On her father’s website, she wrote: “I have always been haunted by my great-great-grandfather Arthur Sinclair.
“These podcasts are the story of a journey to the Peruvian Amazon with my father, retracing Arthur’s steps and his expedition of 1891.”
The Gold Machine releases in select cinemas from 2 September.
Find out more at dartmouthfilms.com/