Paul Atherton (born 20 March 1968) is a London-based filmmaker. He produced and directed ''The Ballet of Change'', a series of four short films that were projected onto London landmarks. His video-diary ''Our London Lives'' is in the permanent collection of the

Museum of London The Museum of London is a museum in London, covering the history of the UK's capital city from prehistoric to modern times. It was formed in 1976 by amalgamating collections previously held by the City Corporation at the Guildhall Museum (fou ...

Early life

Atherton was three months old when he was abandoned in a tent at a disused airport in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

but placed with a white foster family shortly after. Atherton grew up in the village of

Ystrad Mynach Ystrad Mynach is a town in the Caerphilly County Borough, within the ancient county of Glamorgan, Wales, and is north of the town of Caerphilly. The urban area has a population of 19,204, and stands in the Rhymney Valley. Before the Industr ...

in South Wales. He left home at 15, when he spent time in children's homes, and at 16 set up home on his own against the wishes of Social Services and started work on a

Youth Training Scheme The Youth Training Scheme (YTS) was the name in the United Kingdom of an on-the-job training course for school leavers aged 16 and 17 and was managed by the Manpower Services Commission. The scheme was first outlined in the 1980 white paper ''A Ne ...

Howells (department store) Howells is a large department store located on St Mary Street in Cardiff, Wales. The store was established in Cardiff by James Howell in 1865. It was acquired by the House of Fraser group in 1972 and re-branded as House of Fraser in 2010. Hi ...

. He was appointed the Welsh Young Conservatives Press Officer later that year and focused on addressing the issues of homelessness with a programme working with Sixth Forms in schools in Cardiff. He is a graduate of

Cardiff Business School Cardiff Business School ( cy, Ysgol Fusnes Caerdydd) is the business school of Cardiff University in Cardiff, Wales. It was created in its current form in 1987 and opened by Elizabeth II. Cardiff Business School currently serves 3,000 students a ...

Career

In 2002, Atherton got his start in filmmaking with a four-week apprenticeship at British cookery channel UK Food and UK Style. He set up his own production company Simple TV Production in 2004. Then in 2005, Atherton served as producer of '' Silent Voices'', a television docudrama about domestic violence, which premiered on the Community channel (UK) and was later reissued as a DVD to raise funds for the National Centre for Domestic Violence.

''The Ballet of Change''

''The Ballet of Change'' is a series of four films (approximately 4 minutes) produced and directed by Atherton in 2007. Funding was provided by the

National Lottery Heritage Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

. Atherton got permission to premiere each films at the landmark in question ( Piccadilly Circus,

Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, laid out in the early 19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. At its centre is a high column bearing a statue of Admiral Nelson comm ...

, Leicester Square and London Bridge). Music specially written for the films was available for download from a website, and many of the 600 people who watched the screening in Piccadilly Circus brought MP3 players with them for this purpose. Atherton said that his purpose in creating the films was to make available to a wider audience the images hidden in archives, so that more people could engage with London's history. The film about Piccadilly Circus was the first film ever shown on the Piccadilly Circus Coca-Cola billboard.

''Colour Blind 2009''

In 2009 Atherton produced the short film ''Colour Blind 2009'' directed by Amanda Baker which premiered at the British Urban Film Festival the same year. Starring

Wil Johnson Wilbert Charles Johnson (born 18 April 1965) is an English actor, who has had notable television roles in '' Waking the Dead'' and '' Babyfather'', and on stage in '' Othello''. He played Dom Andrews in ''Emmerdale'' from 2012 to 2014. Early ...

and

Robert Cavanah Robert Cavanah is a Scottish stage and film actor, writer, director and producer. Biography Robert Cavanah was born in Edinburgh. He attended James Gillespie's High School in Edinburgh followed by the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Dra ...

it explores the issue of skin colour and stereotyping through the eyes of its protagonists.

''Our London Lives''

In 2016 Atherton's video-diary, tracking sixteen years of his son's visits from his home in South Wales to see him in London, was edited down from over 300 hours of footage to a 77-minute film. Entitled ''Our London Lives'' the film screened as part of the exhibition "Recording A Life" in the Show Space area of the

. After the exhibition the film was taken into the museum's permanent collection.

Personal life

Atherton suffers from the disability Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which has required him to use a wheelchair.

References

External links

Personal website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Atherton, Paul 1968 births Living people People educated at Lewis School, Pengam English film producers Alumni of Cardiff University Mass media people from Cardiff People with chronic fatigue syndrome