Love and Destruction
On February 15, 2003, UK television station Channel 4 aired a documentary on Ash that took a deep look inside the minds of all four members. The results were strange, to say the least. Below is everything you need to know about the documentary film Love and Destruction—watch below and decide for yourself.
The film was shot at the disused Sierra Leone embassy in central London in January 2003. It centres on the band being kidnapped and held in a secret location, where they are subjected to a series of interrogations by their captors. Everything was done for real and beautifully captured on film by French underground directors Rojo.
Charlotte is hypnotised and regressed to a past life, in which she is called Anna and has a husband and a son. She is then questioned about her experiences by the kidnappers. In one scene, she plays Chopin on an imaginary piano while in a trance. Mark is shown having demons exorcised from his body by clairvoyant Sharon Neill. Rick is crucified to a wall by two rubber-clad women and then interrogated about religion and cloning. Tim is submerged in a sensory deprivation tank for hours before being locked in a room where words from his songs are scrawled across every wall and strung on wires that criss-cross the cramped space.
The filming of the documentary was also marked by strange occurrences. Once production got underway, a number of things began to go wrong—cameras wouldn’t work, items went missing, and the embassy was gripped by an unnatural sense of cold, dark oppression and tension.
A clairvoyant named Sharon Neill was brought in to see if she could lift the oppressive atmosphere. Upon arrival, she claimed there were 28 spirits trapped there, some of whom had died under horrible circumstances. It took her two days to clear them, but once they were gone, filming became much easier and the old embassy soon began to feel warmer.
The documentary film is also notable for featuring an experimental and unreleased electronic soundtrack composed by Tim Wheeler.
Credits
Director
Josef Baar
Editor
Lars Vinther
Writers
Josef Baar, Marc Hawker and François Roland
Producer
Marc Hawker
Executive producers
David Granger, Will Macdonald and Ishbel Whitaker
Art direction
Maud Alphaize
Sound
Rob Hughes
Broadcast date
February 15, 2003
Runtime
27m
Production companies
Darkfibre Entertainment Ltd and Monkey Kingdom Productions
Filming locations
London, England, UK