Films A-Z
Until the line-up for 2010 is announced, we are keeping 2009's A to Z in place, so that visitors to the site can find out more about the films screened in our previous festival.
Disgraced film lecturer and would-be documentary filmmaker Barry Lick has a project he believes will be the making of him: a no-holds barred documentary investigation into the alleged criminal activities of dodgy local businessman “Ray Topham”. Recruiting a team of his own former students, Barry’s quest leads him to “Topham’s” “Security Consultant”, Tommy Morghen, who offers all of the access the filmmakers could wish for. But Tommy is a smarter player than Barry and his callow crew could possibly imagine, and is exploiting them for his own ruthless ends…
Blurring the boundaries between the real and the reconstructed, the film offers a blackly comic and fiercely intelligent study of the media’s obsession with and complicity in modern criminality. So authentic is the film’s recreation of the modern documentary style, and so plausible is its gangland milieu, that when lead actor Joe O’Byrne appeared in character as the gangster Tommy Morghen to introduce a screening at the BBC in London, somebody actually called security. And anyone who has ever questioned the morality of Reality TV will recognise the attitude of Barry Lick: “We can do anything we like - you signed a release!” Bad Lad was the film that ushered in what its writer and producer Jonathan Williams has termed the North West Underground, so it seems appropriate that it be screened here at the beginning of a festival strand exploring the phenomenon.
Screening as part of our NORTH WEST UNDERGROUND strand.
Mike Green (Staten Eliot) lives in Manchester and he’s lost: no money, dead end job, and a pregnant girlfriend. Since he was a boy, Mike has been in love with comic books and the escape they offer. When a leading publisher hears of Mike’s own comic book and offers the chance of a meeting, Mike grabs what he can without a thought and heads for London. When things don’t go as planned, a chance meeting with Lucy (Katie Costick), a waitress haunted by her past, opens his eyes to the beauty of possibility and shows him that not everything is already Drawn.
Read the INTERNATIONAL LIFE interview with the film’s co-writer , co-director and co-producer, Joseph Warley, and lead actor Staten Eliot HERE.
DER TOD UND ICH AUF REISEN [ON A JOURNEY WITH DEATH]
Emmanuel, an ageing writer, faces death, and in doing so is taken on an existential journey back through his life, revisiting all of the people and places that have played a significant part in making him who he was and is. Showing as part of CAUGHT SHORT FOUR: FABLES AND FAIRYTALES
In January 1999 Matthew O’Reilly left his parents’ home in Barnstaple, Devon. He has not been seen since. All that remains of him are his paintings, which his father, Tim, curates…
Showing as part of REEL LIFE
DO YOU WANT SUNDAY CINEMA AND GAMES?
Well who wouldn’t?! Once upon a time, such frivolity was unthinkable, however. This film was made to support the Stockport Express wartime campaign for Sunday cinema opening, bringing Stockport in line with other local authorities. We would like to thank the Manchester Evening News for permission to screen this film. Showing as part of UNDERSTANDING THE PAST
