A local film director is making a movie based in Moss Side to show how people who find themselves in unfortunate circumstances are ‘victims of their upbringings’, and not intrinsically bad.
Lapse of Honour is about a young couple who want to pursue their dreams but along the way get themselves into trouble with a teenage pregnancy, drugs and abuse.
Director Rayna Campbell decided to portray these topics after her sixth form friends, who she described as bright people, got themselves into trouble the law.
Rayna told MM: “I was always shocked because they never struck me as the type of people that would get themselves into those situations.
“The media would paint them as really bad people but I knew in their hearts they were really good people.
“They were just victims of their circumstances and upbringings and I really wanted to portray that.”
Characters Eve and Bruce are based on those figures from Rayna’s past, and she was adamant that the film had to be set in her home town Moss Side, despite producers being keen to take it to London.
That extended to her choice of actors, with locals making up the majority of the cast, with Louis Emerick and Gary McDonald – of Brookside and Eastenders fame respectively – two noticeable exceptions.
Another Londoner, Lady Leshurr, was sourced on YouTube, and Rayna told MM that social media and technology played a big part in maintaining – as well as the cast all living in rented accommodation in Withington during filming.
“It was a really great atmosphere on set,” she said.
“All I had to do was tweet and all of our fan base would come down.
“We couldn’t get rid of anyone after hours, they wanted to sleep over.
“It was sort of like a big family, everyone was just really excited about being in a film.
“There was shock at seeing the finished product and seeing themselves on screen.
“We, as this team, had made this film and after we were like ‘wow’.
“It’s just amazing to see, most of them hadn’t done it before and they were very happy, I took them to the pub after.”
The film has been well received, with airings ranging from The British Urban Film Festival, to the Avvantura Film Festival in Croatia, while it has also been released on online platform Vimeo.
Rayna, who is also an acclaimed actress, featuring in TV series Layla Fourie, Scott and Bailey and Doctors, is currently working on two further features, with details to be announced later this year.
Image courtesy of Rayna Campbell, via YouTube, with thanks
