Sussex on Screen: The Moon and the Sledgehammer
Philip Trevelyan's remarkable cult documentary is screening as part of Sussex On Screen, a season showcasing films which feature Sussex landscapes and locations.
Threaded through with the magical and the spiritual, The Moon and the Sledgehammer feels like a time capsule from an entirely different world.
First released in 1971, Philip Trevelyan’s extraordinary documentary has quietly assumed cult status, influencing generations of filmmakers from Nick Broomfield to Andrew Kötting, with fans including Maxine Peake. It captures the eccentric world of the Page family in the 1970s, as they live a simple life in the woodlands of Sussex, near Horsham, in a home without running water, gas or electricity. Unfurling like a poem, the film shows how the Pages’ existence continues an ancient English tradition of profound psychic connection with nature and the earth.