Confessions of a PR Virgin

Chatted to Francine Stock about The Gigolos. They recorded it for the film programme on Radio 4. She asked about the length of time it's taken to get the film released; I thought about the pain of pitching cinemas, raising finance, the struggle of getting an unknown movie to the screen.

It has caused us pain, yes; but at least it's our pain. The grief belongs to us. We own the effort.

We didn't sign to distributor. We don't have a PR company trying to pitch us as Confessions of a Male Escort. We don't have a publicist thinking that the only way to get bums on seats is to lie about the number of bums on screen.

Amazing Grace is also released this weekend. Publicity for the film is being driven by lengthy newspaper debate about the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery. That is: a PR company is using Abolition to generate column inches for the release of a film, with the aim of generating money for its investors and producers.

We're all trying to make money from our movies - why else would we do it? But does it have to be done by exploiting the debate around Abolition? Who's being enslaved here?