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| SHED YOUR
TEARS AND WALK AWAY |
Year: 2009
UK: ICA / Bungalow Town Productions
Cast: Jez Lewis, Cass, Silly
Director: Jez Lewis
Country: UK
UK: 90 mins
UK Certificate: tbc
UK Release Date: 11
June 2010
Official
UK website
Distributor
website
Synopsis
Hebden Bridge is a small town of about 5,000 people nestled in the
deep, long Calder Valley in the West Yorkshire Pennines. When best
friend Emma died from a heroin overdose, director Jez Lewis returns
home for her funeral and began to do some research into why so may
of their friends and neighbours had all committed suicide. He
discovered the suicide rate was dozens of times the national
average, which left him dismayed and confused.
So why is this happening? After all, Hebden Bridge is not some
long-deprived slum; it's a beautiful, quirky little town known for
its creative and tolerant community. Nestled in a steep Pennine
valley, it has a thriving tourist industry with no obvious down
season and has variously been described as a rural idyll,
Britain’s funkiest town, and the Hampstead of the North.
Tracking down his oldest friend, Cass, he is shocked by his
debilitating state of health. Suffering from hepatitis and liver
cirrhosis, he has just been given two years to live if he doesn’t
stop drinking. Jez finds him in the local park with some drunk
friends, and the most shocking aspect of it all is that nobody seems
to think it at all unusual.
While the documentary begins just after Emma’s death, with
Lewis’ attempt to lay old ghosts to rest, it is here on the park
with Cass and his friend Silly that it progresses into a present
tense human drama. Filmed over a year, the story is carried
principally by Cass, who is in the process of changing his ways in a
bid to prolong his life.
It’s an uplifting odyssey, giving a potentially disheartening
story a positive core narrative. Although his friends tell him he
will be next to die, Cass makes himself the unlikely hero of the
piece, strapping himself to the mast and defying them all while they
continue to succumb to their lethal temptations.
Official Selection London Film Festival 2009.
Official Selection Sheffield Documentary Film Festival 2009.
Official Selection Belfast Film Festival 2010.
Official Selection East End Film Festival 2010.
Nominated for best UK debut feature & best documentary feature.
Official Selection Manchester Kino Film Festival 2010.
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