1 Day . . . one day
The celebration-that-should-have-been on 6th November, the launch of an important film, 1 Day, coming out of our Handsworth starring our people was, incredibly, banned.
This is a film made by the internationally renown Penny Woolcock and a remarkable cast of local men and women including the new-found talent Dylan Duffus.
Of its showing at the BFI 53rd Film Festival in London at the end of October, Michael Hayden wrote: Shot on the streets of Birmingham with an entirely black cast, 1 Day is an exhilarating grime musical, enthused from the start with some great rap set pieces, which complement the thrilling action perfectly.
The only way Brummies can see this exhilarating grime musical in the city where the film was made, from where the actors come, is to need traipse out to the Light House in Wolverhampton on 24th November, when we can also drop in on a Q&A afterwards with the film director, Penny Woolcock. (It's free, book via the ScreenWM Festival of Film.)
This Brum-ban is a missed opportunity for the city to congratulate its own on the making of the film, disturbing viewing though it may be. It is also a dangerous precedent.
So we'll go to Wolverhampton to see what Kevin Maher in the Times says is propulsive stuff that credibly mixes social realism with bursts of musical energy. And we'll make our own judgments, thank you West Midlands Police, as to whether just occasionally, though, the movie falls for the gangland glamour -- loving shots of guns, cars and posturing bad boys -- it claims to despise and, if it does, whether or not that distracts from the value of the film.
s.a. a video interview with Penny Woolcock about the film, the Scotsman interview with her, and a report of the Bird's Eye interview with her.
NOTES: The Stirrer has said it'll be shown at the Empire Rubery sometime and at Showcase Cinemas. But I couldn't find anything about this on the Web.
A version of this article first appeared as a Birmingham Post blog.