Philip was an independent film maker working at David Judd’s advertising agency in Euston Street. Maureen Holland, an active member of the Tolmers Village Association, was working there too. She suggested to Philip that he make a film about the squatters in the area. Between them they secured some sponsorship from a local business in North Gower Street and Philip made ‘Tolmers; beginning or end?’ (see film page). The premiere was held at the Gate Cinema in Notting Hill in January 1975  (see poster and ticket). The film was shown on BBC2 as part of the Open Door series in May (see flyer).

While working on the film Philip took some memorable still photographs. Most notable was a photo of squatters in Tolmers Square taken on 4 May 1975. Philip organised the photoshoot for a Sunday morning at 11am. He took the photos  on a  4″ x 5″ plate camera mounted on a tripod. The results can be seen here and here and were used in a flyer for the film as well as a campaign poster.  (Some squatters took similar images with hand held cameras (e.g. here and here)

At the same time as producing the Tolmers film, Philip was in the process of emigrating to the USA where he continued his career as a documentary film maker and screenwriter.