Powerful film “in memory of all the lost aviators”

Made “in memory of all the lost aviators”, the film is called Angel Fleet, the fleet in the sky that aircrew are said to join when they die. Tristan made the piece through his film company Fact Not Fiction Films which he started in 2006 when he had to stop flying due to ill health. 24 and a half minutes in length, the piece will also help raise awareness of The Sally B, the last remaining airworthy B-17 Flying Fortress in Europe.

Tristan filmed throughout last summer, shooting in and around Horsham and also in Portsmouth at a UK Glenn Miller Orchestra concert where one of his young actors got up to sing the Vera Lynn song We'll Meet Again.

“It's a short film, and the story is that this family have lost the husband who was a test pilot who has died in an accident. The mum sets up a charity to look after families that have lost aircrew. They have two daughters and the youngest daughter is struggling to come to terms with the loss of their dad. The film is the journey of this family. It will particularly remember those who were lost during the war but I also know a lot of pilots and cabin crew that are no longer with us and this will be my tribute to these people. I'm very, very pleased with the way it has come out. It has been a dream to make a film that pays homage to all the lost aircrew and also to highlight the history of RAF Coolham. And this is also the third film that I've done with young Darcy Jacobs (from Bexhill). It was a very ambitious project. It's involved Farlington School again as we did with our first film and they were incredible. We also involved a lot of old military aircraft. There are a lot of high-end production values. It ended up costing about £50,000 to make. When we started to make the film we decided to use the Glenn Miller band in the UK but we discovered very late on that they didn't have the composition rights so it cost us a huge amount of money to sort that but I'm really pleased with the result.”

The film now goes forward to film festivals around the world and the hope is that it could become an Academy Awards contender, as indeed Tristan’s last two short films did: “There are about 20,000 short films made around the world each year and only 150 become Academy Award contenders. We hope that this film will be another but really we just hope that people will watch it and be moved and enjoy it. At our premiere the people that were there were just blown away.”

“Since I watched the film The Battle of Britain in a cinema as a young boy, I knew I wanted to be a pilot. When I was 17, I learnt to fly and ever since it’s been an amazing journey. I have had the great honour to meet some amazing pilots, engineers and cabin crew over the decades I flew. I have also met or read about many remarkable crew who are no longer with us. Crews who have now joined Angel Fleet, many sadly long before they should have. For some years, I have been thinking of a story that could be told in a short film that would reflect my emotions, thoughts and pay respect to all those crews looking down from Angel Fleet.”

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