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Home Sittingbourne News Article
A supernatural western movie has been filmed in five days and finished off during lockdown.
The Judge of Harbor County, the 17th feature from prodigious Kent film-maker Al Carretta, was shot at Sittingbourne's Avenue Theatre between October 26 and October 31 last year.
The trailer for The Judge of Harbor County
Director Al, 40, who undertook most of the production work himself, said: "We finished shooting just days before the start of the second UK lockdown which meant any re-shoots I needed were simply impossible.
"Luckily the snow in February helped me fill in the extra shots using a lot of ingenuity."
The finished film has cost him less than £2,000. Pre-production work began on October 13.
Al said: "I sourced all the props and made what was missing from scratch. I made all the costumes with the help of my mum Jeanne Killick and built a 16ft by 16ft set of an old shack on my own."
He transported all the gear from his home in Marlborough Road, Gillingham, to Sittingbourne by cramming it into his car.
The film, set in 1861 Texas, was made using only a single 650-watt light as the moon and battery-powered candles. Al wrote the script, composed the haunting soundtrack, edited the film and built a miniature shed for the opening title scenes.
The one-man movie mogul even managed to act in it, staring as the mysterious marshal James Jennings alongside a cast of eight. Many were from the Medway Towns.
The story was first performed on stage at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe. Al said: "To wrap it up as a film after it had been ignored for a decade was good fun.
"It's a quirky little piece and proof that even in these testing times you can still deliver with a bit of determination."
The cast features Stacey Pomeroy, Fran Lal, Brett Thorne, Howard Lewis Morgan, Sonny Barr, Lauren Moss, Lesley Hayes and Eddie King.
Al has also used the tiny Sittingbourne theatre to stage a film festival.
He is now planning to begin work on his 18th feature in April.
The Judge of Harbor County was released through Amazon Prime on Saturday and includes adult themes.
It will have its first cinema screening at the Avenue Theatre at 3pm on Saturday, May 22. Tickets are £5 from www.avenuetheatre.co.uk
