Recent Biog
2003 - 2008 Africa Wales and USA

In 2003, Karl Francis worked as a professor of Creative Writing at Columbia University New York and Hollins College in Virginia.

Both experiences reinforced the difficulties he had teaching both rich and poorer Americans that film realism is more important than slasher comedies. In addition he found the complete lack of commitment to the Anti war movement totally worrying – as compared with Wales; and the censorship of American intellectuals quite fascist.  Perhaps his Peace activities and pro Christian Socialist activities were monitored.

In fact the silent laziness of the American liberal left led him to believe that the Bush-Cheney power block could easily overwhelm democracy and freedom of movement. My difficulties at Immigration and subsequent events confirmed that my activities were being watched and manipulated.

Returning to Wales he began working with poorer filmmakers and began a plan to share my knowledge with African students. This desire took him to the Zimbabwe film festival in 2005.

“I gave master classes in Harare and Bulawayo. I then toured several short films made by younger Africa films the objective being to challenge he stereotypical views of the British about Africa. The British Council in the Southern Africa region asked me to return and write a report on the potential for film and television in the region. This covered Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa.”

He then put into practise what he had theorized about empowering women in the report and subsequently produced a multi lingual Welsh language film called HOPE a 75 minute film for S4C which was broadcast in September 2007. The film became a model for financing training. He called this the short film, it being more about the Welsh doctor and language than the African nurse as originally intended.

“The plan had been to make a longer film. I completed this film HOPE ETERNAL in January 2008 in much the same way a painter creates a series of drawings which is HOPE and then the oil which is HOPE ETERNAL. The film challenges film structures by introducing the notes not of the writer but of the woman who inspired the writer, myself. So much of the ideas of film are lost in production and editing. Film is dumbed down so that cutting to the chase is what distributors want."

These ideas continue into THE TRAFFICKED CHILD, a film which is now in pre production.

HOPE ETERNAL will have its world premier on May 28th 2008 at the Hay festival, justifiably so because the film re embraces words which somehow have been lost since the days of the Silent Film.

Simultaneously he directed a production of Patrick Jones play THE WAR IS DEAD to which he added film sequences. With Patrick Jones he wrote a screenplay called STAMMER which was never made and he mentored the new directors of 5 short films for SGRIN which is now the Welsh Film Agency, Then with Patrick Jones, he directed NUTTERS and with the Merthyr Media a film called ASBOLAND. Both films were about and with real teenage offenders and stereotyped youngsters. The films were shown in cinemas in Paris and Cardiff but not on television.