BAFTA-nominated film delivers stark message

From the Wiltshire Times, first published Friday 27th Jan 2006.

FILMMAKER Richard Hawkins has been nominated for a BAFTA for his work with a Chippenham community group.

Mr Hawkins, 38, who grew up in the town and went to Hardenhuish School wrote and directed the film Everything, starring Ray Winstone.

The gritty drama has been nominated for the Carl Foreman Award, a special achievement for the director of their first feature film.

Mr Hawkins worked with Kandu Arts, a not-for-profit community group based in Station Hill House, that helps groups with special emotional needs including children in care, young offenders, drug and alcohol dependents and prostitutes.

Kandu's director Ed Deedigan, who worked on the film, said: "The BAFTA nomination was absolutely amazing but is a by-product of all the good work that we have been doing.

"We want to get our message out to a large audience and this is the best way to do that. I could hold a talk in Chippenham Town Hall about prostitution but I doubt whether many people would come."

Kandu, which has been running for around eight years, uses the arts to highlight issues of human suffering and sustainable development. They have made short films in the past, but Everything was their most ambitious project to date.

It is fictional but based on real-life experiences of women in the St Paul's area of Bristol who have been forced into the sex trade.

Nil By Mouth star Ray Winstone agreed to take part in the film for free to raise awareness of Kandu's work.

Former EastEnders actress Jan Graveson, who played pregnant runaway Disa O'Brien in the early nineties and has appeared in episodes of Heartbeat, Casualty and A Touch of Frost, plays the lead role in the movie, which had a budget of just £47,500 and was filmed in nine days.

It is up against Pride and Prejudice at the BAFTA ceremony, dubbed the British Oscars, on February 19.

Mr Deedigan said: "As co-producers with such a small budget to support the realisation of this film, we had to pull out all the stops and call in all the favours from our supporters to make it happen.

"We were in charge of the film's production and finding the cast, including lead male, lead female and Kath Clisby, who plays the support character of a Belarussian prostitute.

"Kath was a young lady who had attended our integrated weekly North Wiltshire Young Persons Theatre Group at Sheldon School for several years.

"She had gained much experience making films on our projects but this was her first ever professional film job."

The film was released on DVD on Monday and is available to rent and buy.

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