204: Max Barrett

My guest this week is Max Barrett, who works as a sales and marketing manager at his family business in sustainability, helping design engineers make more sustainable decisions. Max has a filmmaking background and broadcast journalism, too, and has previously presented film reviews on BBC Radio Kent, and we talk about the way we keep archives of our film reviews.

Max grew up in Kent, and has lived in Canterbury since he was 16. There is also a South Wales connection as his mother is from Swansea. We learn that Wales and Medway are gravitational pulls for him, and we find out how Max’s interests in sustainability began.

Max is also involved with pool tournaments, and we find out how sustainability, artwork and snooker also play a big role in his life. He has even hosted murder mystery parties that he has written himself.

Max studied film production at Canterbury Christ Church University and he speaks about how collaborative his tutors were.

We also learn about Max’s passion for Lego animation when he was in school, and we find out about the Rising Star award he received at a film festival, as well as a film about dementia which he made at the height of the pandemic.

We learn that he would love to make a feature film in the spirit of Jim Jarmusch and that Max made a buddy movie a few years ago when he was at university on his phone. He explains how it became a diary of his time at university and has an important legacy dimension. It may go public when Max retires!

We also discuss the out of date elements in the film Dodgeball and about our perceptions of time, and we learn how his younger self was crazily ambitious.

At the end of the interview we find out how Max is a looking back or a looking forward type of person depending on the time of day.