Echo Chamber - 313 - Part Two (Stephen)
You can hear ‘Part One’ of this week’s episode, HERE!!!
We've got a riveting 'Part TWO' edition of @EchoChamberFP for you this week!!!
Thanks to the great folks at Modern Films, we were able to check out this new and strikingly unorthodox documentary. THEN, sit down with the visual arts phenom, making her first forays into feature length filmmaking with the project! We talk about the challenges, how different formats offer new insights into storytelling, why now was the time, and this was the tale to tell. We got into a LOT, in only sixty minutes, so you don't want to miss this one!!!
'Stephen' is the feature directorial debut from Melanie Manchot, which she co-wrote with Leigh Campbell. A hybrid narrative fiction/documentary, STEPHEN is shaped by the raw and moving energy of one young man's quest to transform his early life of violence and addiction and of his desire to both act and live differently. The film is centred around Stephen Giddings (Ste @stegiddings), who, growing up on the Quarry Green Estate in Kirkby, Liverpool, was confronted with addiction from an early age - both in the lives of those around him, and eventually in his own. At just 26 years old he was giving up on life. What follows is an intimate journey as Stephen auditions for and takes on a role in a movie, questioning whether he can fulfil his ambitions and realise one of his big dreams: to become an actor. Combining original archive material, interviews and narrative drama, STEPHEN brings together a unique cast of British actors alongside a support cast of participants in active addiction recovery.
Watch the conversation: HERE!
In 'Part Two' we have:
Stephen - Poster
Stephen
Watch Review: Here.
2023 Sheffield Doc Fest: 16th March 2024
Digital Release Date: 19th March 2024
Barbican Centre, London: 18:25, 25th April 2024
Book Tickets: Here.
ArtHouse Crouch End, London: 26th April 2024
Book Tickets: Here.
Genesis, London: 2nd May 2024
Book Tickets: Here.
Storyhouse, Chester: 8th May 2024
Book Tickets: Here.
Director: Melanie Manchot
Cast: Stephen Giddings, Michelle Collins, Paislie Reid, Kent Riley, Michael Starke, Lanre Danmola
Credit: Stephen Film, Modern Films
Genre: Drama, Documentary
Running Time: 78 min
Cert: 18
Trailer: Here.
Website: Here.
Instagram: @stephen.film
STEPHEN opens as a multichannel installation at The Exchange, Princes Street, Penzance, Cornwall TR18 2NL from 4th May 2024 until 2nd November 2024. More information: HERE.
Watch the conversation: HERE!
Melanie Manchot
Melanie Manchot
Photographer, Author, Writer, Director, Producer, Visual Artist
London-based artist and filmmaker Melanie Manchot employs photography, film, video and sound to form a sustained enquiry into how we form ideas about our individual and collective identities. Performance-to-camera, reconstruction and participation as well as location-based research are recurring methodologies. She makes films for cinematic and art world distribution and her moving image works have been shown in galleries and museums across the world. These video works - both single screen and multi-channel installations - operate on the cross section of documentary and narrative fiction to investigate how fact, fiction and observation offer strategies for speaking about our shifting place in an increasingly mediated world.
STEPHEN is Manchot’s first feature film, commissioned by Liverpool Biennial. Her work is held in many public collections and was recently presented in a major survey show at museum MAC/VAL, Paris. In 2023, STEPHEN premiered at film festivals internationally as well as being a headline presentation at Liverpool Biennial from June to September 2023.
Follow Melanie via:
IMDb: Here.
Instagram: @melaniemanchot
Website: Here.
Buy Melanie's books via Amazon: Here.
You can hear ‘Part One’ of this week’s episode, HERE!!!
*(Music)
'The Big Payback' (Instrumental) by EPMD - 2020