STEPHEN

synopsis

STEPHEN combines narrative fiction with real-life observation, interviews and archive material. It takes the form of a film-within-a-film, inspired by a famous Mitchell and Kenyon movie, held at the British Film Institute archive: Arrest of Goudie, 1901 - the first ever crime-reconstruction and the very first film produced in Liverpool. The film takes us on intimate journeys into two characters as Stephen Giddings, the film's main character, auditions for and takes on a role in a movie. Produced with a mixed cast of people in addiction/recovery alongside four professional actors, the work presents alternative perspectives on urgent social questions including alcohol/drug misuse, gambling and mental health. As fiction merges with reality, the separation between person, actor and character begins to dissolve and the lines between what is real and what is fabrication start to blur.