In E. E. Cumming’s poem, The Moon’s A Balloon, he writes of a ‘Keen City filled with pretty people’, a place of unshackled creative spirit and flourishing, energetic ideas. Keen City Productions is made up of David Symington, Stephen Whiteside, Nick Goulden, and Arnold Pistorius and each has invested into this utopic ideal. Their first film, Alleyman, won a Lion Award for Achievement at the British Independent Film Awards, 2011. Their short film Darkest Before Dawn premiered at the Cannes Short Film Corner in May 2011. They also received an honourable mention at this year’s Los Angeles Independent Film Festival. Keen City is based in London, where they are keeping themselves busy with new projects. A short film, The Tyrant’s Cup, is in post-production, whilst a feature film, The Cult, is currently at the financing stage. The team is also currently working on a number of exciting television projects.

Whilst each member of the team contributes different skills to Keen City, they are united by a firm belief in perfectionism and professionalism, striving to always make the relentless effort required to separate the good from the truly exceptional.

Keen City’s core values revolve around delivering engaging, high-quality content that makes people interested, makes them think, and, in an absolutely ideal universe, also makes them laugh. That last bit can be much harder than you think. But, if done properly, it can lift people beyond the questionable pleasures of escapist entertainment, pack the punch of ground-breaking drama and make as much of an impact as even the most depressing parts of the Scandinavian realist oeuvre.

When developing projects, Keen City’s writing team has a number of key objectives in mind. The first is to tackle an issue of real importance – The Cult, for example, aims to understand the role of spiritual belief, searching for belonging and the importance of love. In the wrong hands, of course, this could sound about as enjoyable as a six-hour session going through the more esoteric points of the Book of Leviticus, in Hebrew, with the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Which neatly brings us on to the second guiding principle behind Keen City’s projects: make it funny. Comedy runs through the company’s veins to an even greater extent than sherry. And that is really going some. But the aim is always to use humour that is intelligent, that is positive, and occasionally involves jokes about gardening tools. Everyone has one weakness. Although this reveals something else Keen City believes in: originality. Following other people, or mimicking what’s popular, can never take the place of telling the best story possible. Unless it’s a story about the bad things that happen when you try and copy other people. That story hasn’t, purely for the sake of information, actually been written yet. But the point is it could get complicated.

Although the founding principles of Keen City rest on these high-minded – and occasionally botanical – ideals, members of its production team have worked on enough projects to know practicality is just as important as vision when it comes to the art of actually making films. Intensive, detailed planning, a rigorous approach to budgeting and an absolute, unwavering commitment to delivering projects in line with schedules and budgetary limitations are the key goals behind every project Keen City works on.

While many people can see practical and financial obstacles as restrictive, Keen City believes such issues often result in the production of the best work, by demanding a tightly-focused and innovative approach, leading to the formation of new and exciting ideas. Although a big budget, large expenses account and all-inclusive trip to Monte Carlo might occasionally be nice. If you’re offering.

Keen City
For more information and general enquiries, please email

http://www.keencity.com
For more information and general enquiries, please email info@keencity.com

Author Bio: Keen City
For more information and general enquiries, please email

Category: Entertainment
Keywords: Keen City, David Symington, Stephen Whiteside, Nick Goulden, Arnold Pistorius, Independent Film