DIRECTORS behind a documentary about the Buckland Paper Mill have announced there is to be a free public preview of the film.

Dover Arts Development (DAD) has spent three years working on the 90-minute Watermark film, which tells the history of the mill through the stories of the men and women who worked at the site.

Boasting new, unseen footage of a normal working day in the factory shot by the late Colin Pritchard, as well as photographs collected in the story shop opened by DAD in Bench Street in March last year, it is hoped the movie will interest the community.

Photographs from the Dover Museum also feature in the documentary on the mill, which closed abruptly in 2000.

DAD director Joanna Jones said she was looking forward to the first public preview of Watermark on March 6.

She said: "We are thrilled to have got to the point where we are able to show the public this film.

"It's the culmination of three years' work and from the feedback we have received from those that have seen it already, we're very excited.

"Watermark is about the paper mill and its processes but also about how it affected Dover and its people."

The preview screening of the film, directed by Marianne Kapfer, will be held at 11am in the town hall as part of the Dover Film Festival.

Places are free but, owing to the expected high demand, must be reserved at the Visitor Information Centre in Biggin Street.

Many of the former mill workers who feature in Watermark were treated to a sneak preview of the film in December when they held a special reunion party.

Ms Jones added: "As one person who has seen the film said to me, 'I know of so many people in the documentary' and we're sure the people of Dover will do too."