AS the world’s first UNESCO City of Film, Bradford is no stranger to the big screen. The past year has seen the release of these very different films, each shot in the district:
* Ali & Ava, shot largely in Holme Wood, featuring local people in cast and crew, was released in February. The warm-hearted love story was highly praised at the Cannes Film Festival.
Described as “a love letter to Bradford”, it stars Claire Rushbrook as an Irish-Catholic grandmother who falls for a younger Asian man, played by Adeel Akhtar. The pair bond through a love of music and tentatively begin a relationship that both families disapprove of.
It was written and directed by Clio Barnard, who was inspired by people she met in Holme Wood when shooting her 2013 film The Selfish Giant, about young scrap metal dealers. Residents from Holme Wood appear in Ali & Ava, and University of Bradford graduates worked with the crew. The film was shot during lockdown and when the production team was unable to travel local people helped out with sound recordings. Filming locations include Undercliffe Cemetery, Bradford Cathedral grounds, Tong and the city’s Waterstones bookstore.
At the northern premiere of Ali & Ava, at the National Science and Media Museum, Otley-born Clio said: “I came here in 2008 to make The Arbor and it was because of Andrea Dunbar that I grew to love Bradford. I wanted to make a film celebrating the city and its inhabitants.”
Bradford City of Film director David Wilson, who worked with Clio on Ali & Ava, called it “a very Bradford film”. He added: “Authenticity is at the heart of all Clio’s work. We need more local voices like hers.”
* In July, a familiar face arrived in a cloud of steam at Oakworth Station...
The Railway Children Return - sequel to beloved 1970 film The Railway Children - saw Jenny Agutter return as Bobbie, now a grandmother in wartime Yorkshire. The film was shot in Haworth, Oakworth and Saltaire, with the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway once again taking a central role.
Last summer Jenny and the cast, including Sheridan Smith, Sir Tom Courtenay and Game of Thrones actor John Bradley, came to Oakworth Station to board ‘Big Jim’, a steam train driven by Nicholas Hellewell - who drove a train in the original film - to a red carpet screening at Keighley Picture House. “It feels emotional to be here,” Jenny told the T&A. “I first stepped on the footplate of a train here and I’ve loved steam trains ever since.”
She said the film, about child evacuees arriving by train, has a poignant resonance with the present: “We had no idea when we were filming that children would be leaving their homes in Ukraine, by train. Ultimately I think our film is a story of hope.”
Sheridan Smith, who plays Bobbie’s daughter, said: “It could only be filmed here, with these stunning locations. I used to watch the original film with my mum and dad. It’s lovely to take it forward with a new set of children.”
Director Morgan Matthews said most filming took place locally, at locations including the Bronte Parsonage Museum: “So much of the story came from the geography. We were lucky to still have locations people recognise from the original.”
Producer Jemma Rodgers added: “I lived near Haworth and I know these locations. There’s something very rugged, gritty and resilient about them, even the way the trees are bowed. It meant everything to film here - that and the fact that Jenny, who gets offered so much ‘Railway Children’ stuff, saw something so appealing in it. And the railway is a gift!”
* Also shot in and around Haworth was Emily, released in October, with a preview at Skipton’s Plaza Cinema. Starring Emma Mackey of Netflix hit Sex Education and Line of Duty actor Adrian Dunbar, the film is an imagined account of how Emily Bronte came to write Wuthering Heights.
The directorial debut of actress Frances O’Connor explores the relationships that inspired Emily - her “raw, passionate sisterhood” with Charlotte and Anne, her forbidden love for curate William Weightman and her adoration of Branwell, her maverick brother. Says Frances: “Emily’s story is about a young woman daring to form herself, to embrace her true nature.”
* A group of ageing amateur film-makers who meet every Monday evening in a rundown building in Little Horton may not seem an obvious choice for a movie. But A Bunch of Amateurs, a documentary about the club, went on to be the surprise cinema hit of the year.
Kim Hopkins’ charming film about the the Bradford Movie Makers has been loved by critics, including Mark Kermode, who make it his Pick of the Week. Even Baz Lurhmann, Australian director of hit movies such as Moulin Rouge and Elvis, is said to be a fan.
The touching film, both hilarious and heartbreaking, follows members of the world’s oldest amateur film-making club as they fight to keep it going and remake a major musical. Kim Hopkins, who directed and produced A Bunch of Amateurs, with Labor of Love Films co-founder Margareta Szabo, says it’s a tribute to a group of people who “cling to their dreams, fuelled by endless cups of tea”.
What has touched audiences is the camaraderie between people with a shared passion for film, who seek solace from life’s challenges at their little club. It’s a gently comedic, profoundly moving portrait of friendship in an increasingly lonely digital age. It is, as Bradford City of Film director David Wilson calls it: “A film bursting with humanity”.
* Both A Bunch of Amateurs and Emily have made it to the Bafta Films Awards 2023 long list.
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