The very first screening of Summer Rain, Jonathan's debut feature, was at the London based Raindance Film Festival. Co-incidentally, Jonathan's first 16mm short film had it's first festival screening during the fledgling festivals first ever year at the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square. Now though, eight years on we were at the Curzon in Soho. The sold out screening was attended by many of the cast and crew. The festival program wrote:-
“Debut director/co-writer Jonathan Glendening’s light touch is refreshing, and his emphasis on the ensemble playing suits the material well. The young cast are allowed to bounce off each other, convincingly suggesting their tangled relationships. Cinematographer Peter Wignall emphasizes the luminous Mediterranean oranges and reds in his shots, evoking the work of Patrice Leconte particularly “Tango” and “The Hairdresser’s Husband”. The script by Glendening and Chris Rieley is in the same vein as the BBC’s “This Life”, with a suitably populist soundtrack of Brighton-based bands. The film concerns itself with its characters about moving on to brighter things and not looking back, and there is enough energy and talent in evidence to suggest that the filmmakers will do so as well.”
Based on the audience reaction to the Raindance screening Jonathan and the editor Iain Mitchell made a further 25 minutes worth of cuts and brought the running time down to 93 minutes; the deleted scenes can be seen on the DVD.