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28 October 2014
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Film, TV and Animation

Vin Kelly and Sky Wilson
Vin Kelly and Sky Wilson

Feeling the force, by George!

Star Wars has been a firm favourite with film fans for nearly 30 years, but a pair of Mancunian documentary makers have found that it could actually be good for you too, particularly if you’ve gone to the point of making a fan film.

George and Me

  • George and Me is available on DVD, features over 40 minutes of bonus features, from the website

'George and Me' investigates how much of a positive effect Star Wars has been on the lives of the people who love it. Producer Sky Wilson and director Vin Kelly told us about why having the force with you could make you so much more than a sci-fi geek.

Where did the idea come from?

Vin: "It all started about three years ago. Me and Sky were in an online TV show for Star Wars fans that make their own shows, and there’s 1000s of them. We met a guy called Shane Felux, who’d spent $40,000 and three years making his own fan film and it was really impressive!"

"One of the things we wanted to do with the film was to show Star Wars fans that it’s ok to say 'hey, I’m a Star Wars fan'."
Vin Kelly on why he and Sky put the documentary together

Sky: "People like the adventure of Star Wars. You watch it and you think, wow, this is great, I’d love to be in this. When it first came out, you had to spend hours and hours drawing in light sabres, but technology has moved on, so now people can make films on their computers. So we decided to make this documentary about what effect that has on people."

Are you two Star Wars fans?

Sky: "I’ve always been a fan, ever since I was little because my dad was into sci-fi, and Vin being my son, he was brought up with it."

So how does Star Wars make us feel good?

Sky: "We bumped into a lady in America called Carol Gilbert. Her husband has a very bad on-going illness. She got into Star Wars because she lost everything. What happened was her husband couldn’t work, she had to sell her collection of model horses and she was down in the dumps.

Sky and a stromtrooper helmet
Sky and a stromtrooper helmet

"She decided that she’d get back into the Star Wars films. She got on the internet, joined a Star Wars costuming group – she now makes costumes for people – and she says it saved her life. She had nothing and then there was one thing she could actually concentrate on.

"For a lot of people, being interested in anything does you more good than harm. Making the fan films gets people involved, their family and their community, which allows everyone to interact."

Some people are ridiculed for having an allegiance to Star Wars…

Vin: "One of the things we wanted to do with the film was to show Star Wars fans that it’s ok to say ‘hey, I’m a Star Wars fan’."

Did you worry about having a market for your film?

Sky: "We funded it ourselves, it’s totally independent, so there was a risk but we didn’t worry much. We did a lot of research beforehand to make sure everyone got to know about it. We’ve got orders from Brazil, Australia, Finland, every country you can think of. And it’s not just the Star Wars community. It’s people from all over the place."

last updated: 06/10/06
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