ONE of the region’s burgeoning filmmakers has been given a helping hand to put his movie about the mythical creature that some say lurks beneath Windermere up on the big screen.

Charles Morris, the filmic force behind The Royalty, has given talented Kendalian Elliott Leon a three-night slot to show his Humps or: Grey Water, Green Eyes, a movie about a documentary filmmaker in search of the Bowness monster and a missing Canadian TV crew.

Elliott’s film - which was shot in Bowness and Kendal - will be screened at the Bowness cinema from November 13-15 and provides a real feather in Elliott’s director’s cap.

The story tells of an aristocratic farmer who is performing experiments on a group of wild boar in order to create super-sized carcasses for market. After slaughter, he dumps the remaining drug-infused tissue into a stream that joins the waters of Windermere.

Could the farmer’s illegal activities be having an adverse effect on the local population of Crescent crested newts, their only habitat the same tributary that feeds the lake?

Fast forward 15 years to the arrival of Jeremy Clackhandle, described as a harebrained, investigative documentary filmmaker looking for the break to launch his career.

When Clackhandle receives a tip-off about a raucous Canadian television crew, last thought to have visited Windermere, he sees it as the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and investigate the disappearance of the Canadians and at the same time, explore the legend of Bownessie, Windermere’s - and the Lake District’s - fabled lake monster.

Just what became of the Canadians? What happened to those newts? And what will become of Jeremy?

Humps or Grey Water, Green Eyes is a dark comedy combining both the real and the surreal, all the while, said Elliott, “driven by a diverse, yet cohesive musical score.”

Elliott added that he was delighted that Charles Morris and The Royalty will be screening the film: “It seems fitting that a truly independent cinema, set in the heartland of the Lake District, is showing a truly independent film, while at the same time sharing the same residence as the Bowness monster itself.”

The film is screened at The Royalty, Bowness, at 8.40pm on Wednesday and Thursday, November 13-14, and 6pm on Friday, November 15.