Stage: The lost David Bowie film directed by David Hemmings

Wandering around Braunston a couple of weeks ago, I thought of Running Scared, the lost David Hemmings film that was shot there.

Released in 1972, that was his first film as director, But there was another Hemmings project from the Seventies that is never seen.

The Bowie Bible explains:

The London concerts were also filmed, and were to be part of Stage, a planned 90-minute documentary on Bowie’s Isolar II tour. Bowie and director David Hemmings hoped to have the film in cinemas later in 1978, but it was still unfinished in early 1979. ...

According to Hemmings, "At the end of it he didn’t like the cut, or he didn’t like the fact that we had to cut in between numbers in order to get all the coverage. So he never released it."

In 2000 Bowie said of the film: "I simply didn’t like the way it had been shot. Now, of course, it looks pretty good and I would suspect that it would make it out some time in the future."

This documentary includes some of the concert footage Hemmings shot as well as clips of interviews with both Hemmings and Bowie.

Jane Street-Porter can be seen dancing in the club scene in Blow-Up. Hemmings must have thought she was stalking hem.