David Nicholas Wilkinson, founder and current owner of Guerilla Films is probably unique in the UK entertainment industry in that he has been involved in so many different areas since he entered the industry in 1969. He was an award winning actor. He has produced and/or distributed around 100 feature films in the cinema, on DVD, TV and online. He ...
Guerilla Docs is run by David Nicholas Wilkinson and Bill Lawrence in Halifax, Yorkshire, England. In 1986 Wilkinson decided to move from fiction films to narrative ones. With his then business partner Sir Ernest Hal,l the founder of Dean Clough Industrial Park in Halifax, Yorkshire he developed many documentaries all based in the North of England including a film about the extraordinary story of Louis Le Prince. All were rejected by every UK broadcaster. In 1990, when Wilkinson working on the White Rose Television bid for the Yorkshire ITV franchise Nicholas Fraser told that he would never be able to raise money from any UK TV broadcaster until he had made at least one documentary under his belt. Although Fraser assured him that if they won the franchise he would commission his first one. White Rose lost. From 1992-1994 Wilkinson made three feature length docs all made totally independently " London Underground", James Herriot's Yorkshire", "House of Cyn". Two went into profit, an amazing feat for films made outside the system. The other lost its entire budget. At the time there were very few feature length docs made in the UK. However despite this success Wilkinson was still unable to convince any UK broadcaster to commission any of his documentaries. He therefore moved into distributing films in the cinema, on video and licensing to TV. During that time he did make 12 "Making Of" docs for films he distributed such as " Taking Sides", "The Serpents Kiss", " Two Men Went To War". Other recent feature length documentaries Wilkinson has been involved in producing are the multi award winning " How To Change The World", " Charles Dickens's England" and with Guerilla Docs and Bill Lawrence " All The Wild Horses", " Body Parts & After Life" and after a thirty three year journey he has at last made the Le Prince story in "The First Film" which on its cinema release in July 2015 received 87.5% above average reviews across all the British press and 89% on Rotten Tomatoes. It and even featured on News At Ten, the Today Programme and others. With over 20 documentaries under his belt ( only one of them with part UK TV production funding) Wilkinson and Lawrence are moving forward with a slate of documentaries, this time hoping they can persuade more British broadcasters to support them and the stories they wish to tell.