Screen ·
Jack’s back: the family story behind Bearigo Studios
A family connection to cinema sits at the heart of Bearigo Studios. The Reel Never Ends follows John George ‘Jack’ Smart and the surviving traces of his place in early British film history.
The story behind the studio
Jack is the great-grandfather of Bearigo Studios co-founder Daniel Bearigo. His story gives the documentary a personal starting point: a family looking again at the papers, memories and photographs that have been carried forward through generations.
In 1919, Jack co-founded Astra Films alongside Herbert Wilcox, Charles Wilcox and Herbert Wright Thompson. Herbert and Charles were brothers. Herbert later became a celebrated British producer and director, particularly known for his films with Anna Neagle.
Following the surviving record
The documentary’s starting point is the surviving family archive. Letters, family papers and contemporary records provide a way to explore Jack’s place in that early cinema partnership, alongside the people whose names became more widely known.
The Reel Never Ends is in development. Its trailer introduces the story and the connection between Jack’s history and the creative work being brought together at Bearigo today.
A new way into Jack’s story
Jack also inspires Jack’s Back, a jazz-house track released on the Bearigo website as a playable studio track. Its Bronx jazz-club setting offers a musical companion to the documentary: an Englishman welcomed into a room where the piano, brass and crowd gradually find a new beat.
Watch the documentary trailer, listen to the track, and discover the people behind Bearigo Studios through the links below.
