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Late 2022 I decided to make a short film as locally as possible, my aim being for the cast and crew to be sourced like dropping a stone in a pond, but that pond being my current hometown of Glossop.

I met up with local actors – thanks to the support of our local playhouse the Partington Theatre – in April/May 2023, and one ex-local actor (who now resides in Brighton) in June. The crew came from Glossop, Leeds, Macclesfield and – in one instance – Glasgow (they worked remotely).

We shot over one weekend in mid-July 2023, I chose July because most of the film takes place outside, and I figured it’d be nice weather then.

I was wrong.

But we persevered, my cast and crew were incredible, and incredibly tolerant of torrential rains, and – aside from one small pick-up shoot a week later with one actor and one crew member, we got everything we needed.

The film was edited and sound-mixed (by the aforementioned Glasgow-based dubbing editor) and ready for festival submissions by the end of October 2023.

Eventually a premiere screening was hosted in Glossop at the inaugural event of The Black Circle collective, followed by a Q&A with me, moderated by podcaster Clare Savory (who I worked with on the Longdendale Tales series), and then two sets by Sulk Rooms (Thomas Ragsdale) and A-Sun Amissa launching their album Ruins Era.

Since then the film has had festival screenings at the Stockport Garrick Film Festival, the North Manchester Film Festival – in association with Sick! Festival – and earned an Honourable Mention from Brighton Rocks festival.