You might not have heard of Special People. It’s not really one of ‘those’ films; the kind that tend to garner international recognition. But hopefully, you’ll be hearing a lot more about it over the next few months as it’s just won the Audience Award at the Britspotting Festival in Berlin, beating some major contenders including In the Shadow of the Moon.
Special People is a film about four kids in wheelchairs and an idiot director on the verge of a nervous breakdown. It stars ex-LWLies interviewee Sasha Hardway – check her out in Issue 15, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Issue.
Says Director Justin Edgar: “We are delighted to win this award. The film has won over audiences wherever it’s played. We were influenced by Gregory’s Girl when we shot the film and it seems that the charming comedy of that film has seeped into Special People.”
For more info on the film, check it out here. It should be getting a summer 2008 release. Go see it.
On a (vaguely) related subject, BAFTA’s piss-poor handling of another ‘disabled’ film, The Last American Freak Show, deserves to be pointed and laughed at: http://www.technoccult.com/archives/2008/02/11/the-last-american-freakshow-and-the-bfta-controversy/
Written by Matt on April 23rd, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Also on a related subject, we have an interview originally done for Issue 15 with Lucy Gwin from Mouth Magazine, ‘voice of the disability nation’. It didn’t run in the mag, but if there’s interest we could put a transcript online. Let us know.
Written by Matt on April 23rd, 2008 at 1:29 pm