DERBYSHIRE, England — Independent filmmaker Stuart Wheeldon has announced the development of a new feature film, 'The Search for Gillian Gold', a mystery-thriller set against the strange, uneasy landscape of rural Derbyshire.
Inspired by real archival work, unexplained lights and the quiet tension of small communities, the film follows an archivist who begins to investigate the disappearance of a journalist — only to uncover a story that was never meant to be recorded.
The project is open for crowdfunding, inviting audiences and supporters of independent cinema to become early backers. Funds raised will support production costs, casting, locations and post-production.
“'The Search for Gillian Gold' is a film about people who disappear between the cracks — and the way institutions quietly archive the inconvenient,” Wheeldon said. “It’s intimate, unsettling, and rooted in the landscapes and histories I grew up around. Crowdfunding allows us to keep creative control and make the film the way it needs to be made — without compromise.”
Casting is in progress, with roles for both local and national actors, and shooting is scheduled to take place in Derbyshire to maintain the film’s authentic sense of place. Drawing from art-house cinema, investigative thrillers and eerie British realism, the project joins a growing wave of independent British films questioning how stories are told — and who decides what is remembered.
The campaign is live on Crowdfunder.
