A short film about the homeless, with homeless people in the cast, received a standing ovation when it was premiered at the Cornerhouse arts cinema in Manchester. doodledoMOTION were pleased to contribute towards filming behind the scenes of the rehearsals, shoot and editing, and also working to produce "The Making Of..." short documentary.
Some 230 people watched Humanitas premiered at Manchester's Cornerhouse, who then rose for a standing ovation for the cast, who took a bow with director Lauren Tomlinson (pictured second right with ex-homeless cast members) and co-director Katherine Power. The cast are mostly people who have had experience of homelessness, and some of them had been homeless at the time of filming. The new confidence of the actors was demonstrated when three of them spontaneously came forward and addressed the audience, drawing attention not only to the plight of homeless people in the city but to what they are capable of achieving.
Asked how the film came about, Lauren, a trained actor, said: “In the summer of 2007 I helped with a concert for homeless people in Manchester City Centre. I spent an evening listening to life stories and hearing about the boredom and aimlessness of life on the streets. Many folk expressed an interest in acting, so I came home and wrote a film script for them.”
Under the name Acting on Impulse, Lauren and a team of volunteers ran fortnightly acting workshops, recruiting from the City Centre Ministries van that distributes food to homeless people in Store Street, behind Piccadilly Station. Lauren says: “We had about 25 participants, with a core of 10 people who were cast as the main characters in the film.
“This has been an amazing journey for all of us. I have seen our actors grow in confidence, develop their imaginations and begin to work as a team. Visitors commented on the talent discovered in this group.”
In March 2008, Lauren brought together a professional film crew and the film was shot in a weekend, and doodledoMOTION were there to capture it all to show the effort and passion being put into the project.
Lauren adds: “This has been an incredibly affirming experience for the actors. The project goes on. I’ll be entering the film into short film festivals and will be making it available to anyone who works with homeless people, to show what is possible if only someone invests in and believes in you.” The film is now available on DVD, and doodledoMOTION have already produced a 10 minute version of the documentary and plan to soon have a longer-form version available.
- POSTED BY JAMES