A couple of hours before we speak, the headline in the Liverpool Echo reads: “Sean Ono Lennon sends vital message.” The paper was talking about a projection on the beautiful facade of the city’s Maritime Museum — the message in question being the title of the musician and film-maker’s Oscar-winning short, War is Over! The trailer for the film was playing on repeat on the brickwork overlooking the Albert Dock. And the city was, of course, the hometown of his father, John Lennon.
This, finally, is the launch of an 11-minute animation with a powerful anti-war message, a fundraising component in aid of War Child and an emotional climax in the timeless sound of Lennon’s 1971 activist carol Happy Xmas (War is Over). As the film’s subtitle has it, it was “Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko”, and it grew out of an idea to make a 50th anniversary pop video for the song.
