London Crawling

Writer and Director Hunter Richards on His Debut Feature Film, London

By Maurice Spencer Teilmann

In the Dionysian excess of a New York loft party, a flawed protagonist desperately attempts to salvage his crumbling relationship with London, his soon-departing girlfriend. In anticipation of London’s February release, writer/director Hunter Richards took a moment to answer a short barrage of e-mail questions.

Why did you choose the Crystal Method to write a considerable amount of the film’s soundtrack?
Drugs. They had a good drug name.

Are you concerned that since London deals with party culture, that people may perceive the film as glorifying or promoting drug use?
No, it’s a love story gone horribly wrong, and when things go horribly wrong in this culture the masses will inevitably turn to drugs. If it’s not antidepressants, it’s self-medicated substances like cocaine or weed or alcohol or sex…ya know, hookers. When something is taken from us, like love, or we find ourselves in incredible depression, drugs seem to be the global solution for filling that void.

What are London’s origins?
An ex-girlfriend I dated for a while had an exboyfriend who couldn’t let her go. He was having panic attacks and was very suicidal and haunted us for many years. He ended up crashing her going-away party before she was flying out of town to come live with me, and it was enough drama to cram into a 90-minute film.

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