Last year, author Iain Sinclair spent a day walking 35-miles around the “ginger” London Overground route, in order to write about how the modern the city shapes our identities.

Leytonstone filmmaker John Rogers was inspired by his journey and retraced Iain’s steps over the course of a year for his new film, London Overground, which shares the same name as Ian's book. 

The film charts Iain, who is from Hackney, walking through the changing landscape from his home in Hackney, through Shoreditch down to Wapping, where he revisited his earlier book Downriver.

John originally interviewed Iain, who has also written London Orbital and Hackney Downriver, which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Encore Award, where he was asked if he wanted to take the same journey again with the author.

In the company of Andrew Kötting once more, they rambled in both senses from the Thames foreshore at Rotherhithe through Canada Water, Surrey Quays to Queens Road, Peckham.

At Willesden Junction, John was joined by film‐maker and author Chris Petit as they surveyed the developments around Old Oak Common. Sinclair and Kötting also walked through the night to reprise their original walk in reverse.

Dalston was surveyed with local campaigner Bill Parry‐Davies logging what has been lost in the redevelopment and met noir novelist Cathi Unsworth at Shepherds Bush and Westfield and artist Marcia Farquhar in Kentish Town.

The project aimed to capture a snapshot of the city, which Ian describes as: “a series of psychic mappings that reinforce our own identity.”

The film, which also features an original soundtrack with music from Standard Planets, Bill and Adam Parry-Davies, and Free Seed Music, was then premiered in the East End Film Festival, in July this year and also screened this week at the Bloomsbury Festival.

John explains why he wanted to get involved in the project and how he is planning future screenings across London.

The 44-year-old says: “I’m a big fan of Ian’s writing and have been for a number of years, so it was an amazing opportunity to interview him about the book.

“At the end of the interview he asked me if I wanted to go on the route too and we got to do it over the course of a year, which was such an unbelievable thing and an amazing project to be involved in.

“Normally when you make films, you often face challenges or difficulties, but it was surprising that nothing went wrong this time and was a real dream.

“Hopefully we can do a DVD for next year and keep getting it out there in different festivals around London for people to see.”

Details: swedenborg.org.uk/events/bloomsbury_festival