Kidulthood

From interview with Director Menjal Huda:I optioned it for 18 months on the basis that I would not only direct it, but I would produce it as well. We managed to get The Film Council to want to make it with Film Four but after lots of re-writes and meetings that I felt lacked any real direction, we lost all our backing. I had no support. There were times when I just wanted to walk away.At that point what kept you going?

How did you manage to finance Kidulthood?

I got lucky and came into some money which I invested in to the film. I also met a producer, George Isaac, who put some money into the project too. We eventually had a working budget of £650,000 - not the £800,000 I was aiming for, but enough. We had to defer the writer's fee, the producer's fee, and some legal fees. We decided to shoot on 35mm and finish on High Definition, so if the film was a complete pile of rubbish we wouldn't be wasting money on getting a print.So after a lot of trouble and toil, Kidulthood finally got made.How well did it do on the festival circuit?We entered it into Edinburgh and we failed to get in, we entered it into Toronto and after we'd been told they loved the film, they said they weren't going to programme it. We didn't get into Venice or Locarno.

In July 2005 I decided to just do a cast and crew screening, with family and friends invited, and an audience of 750 - 800 people turned up! It just went crazy. That was when the buzz really started.Great - proof that word of mouth really does work. So, did a distributor then pick it up?Actually, the only distribution company that was there was Revolver. We were incredibly excited by the audiences' feedback and we very quickly set up another screening for more distribution companies. It was held in the Empire Leicester Square; a packed house, loads of kids and was a fantastic screening. The audience loved it.

But no one from the distribution companies were interested. Some people walked out. And that's when you think, how much more does it have to be spelled out? The kids are here and you can see their response - they love it.But things ran smoother after the screening?After the screening, things took a strange turn. The distribution deal was done with Revolver but they wanted some minor cuts to the film, which I was unhappy about (as was Noel) because I didn't believe the film would perform any differently with these cuts. They went ahead with it without ever discussing it with me directly.What were the cuts?The main cut is in the sequence where Trife, the lead, is by the river and pulls out the purse that he's stolen from the woman earlier on in the film - and the audience is left wondering why he does this.In my cut, Trife goes back and returns the purse to her.

She invites him to come in for a drink. She is really drunk and we find out her story; that she is a widow, her husband recently died and she has no one. In her drunken state she comes on to Trife but in a pivotal moment he actually tells her how old he is and that he doesn't want sex with her. This is a big moment in the film as he actually admits that he is just a kid - a kid that's grown up too quickly.But on the flipside, Revolver did distribute the film and Kidulthood got a DVD release.

Have TV rights been bought?

Yes, the BBC has bought it.And career wise, on the strength of Kidulthood, you recently won a BIFA, the Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director. How does it feel going through a journey of such turmoil to finally having your work celebrated?Considering how little attention we got from the festivals it was great to get some kind of recognition that we'd done a good job and that we'd made a good film. The BIFAs was the only place we were ever going to get recognition and I'm really pleased that they took note of Kidulthood because it is the most independent film that's been made and come out of the UK.But the Dinard British Film Festival did give you Best Screenplay (2006).It did. But isn't it ironic that the first British film festival that Kidulthood goes to is in France? And, up till now, Kidulthood has yet to be screened at a festival in the UK.

Despite losing your backing, you went on to make your film independently and with great success. What's your advice for filmmakers passionate about making their own independent films?Don't wait for years of development. Get your script right and try and raise the money yourself. There are so many ways to get a film made and it doesn't have to be the traditional route. Be strong and realistic about what you want to achieve and don't take no for an answer.From this interview we can see clear errors in financing from an unknown screen writer, unknown cast and ensemble cast that have equal pay.The film subject about youth's road to destruction may not advertise a pleasing film!The first time distributers, which may not hold the status as other companys like Universal and Warner Bros.2.How much was given to the film for production and distribution? What criteria did the film have to meet to be awarded the funds?Noel Clarke, the award-winning writer and star of Kidulthood, is to direct his first feature Adulthood, backed by the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund.This is from the BBC website of a review of the Film Council and its policys...The Film Council represents the official public route to get money to make films, but the funding comes at a price.

Unfortunately that price seems to be blandness and a failure to allow alternative lifestyles and different attitudes towards British life to flourish on screen. The Film Council does not have an official policy on the message of the films it makes, which is how it should be. But look more closely at the education policy of the Film Council and its message is clearly made, one of its ‘Indicative Priorities’ reading that it supports ‘advocating the educational importance of film and the role it plays in fostering citizenship, creativity and innovation’.

The trouble is that this message is not constrained to the schools division. Hardly any Film Council movie gets made that does not foster this ideal. But as with so many rules made from above it’s an ideal that’s completely out of touch with urban life. The result is a film industry that makes the most bland, unimaginative and moralistic urban dramas in the world. No wonder then that our movies always seem to suck.The UK Film council has also given Noel Clark £1 Million for the follow up called Adulthood.

4.Why would this film be more successful on DVD than in the cinema?
From a website called World Press.comThe UKFC also supported the release of Adulthood, enabling a much wider release than Kidulthood on 179 prints from Pathe at its widest. Adulthood has many of the pluses from Kidulthood, but I think it suffers a little from Clarke’s ambition to make it a more philosophical film than its predecessor. There is nothing wrong with such an ambition, but for a first time director it is a bit more of a challenge. Clarke is much more the focus himself as an actor in the sequel and it must be difficult to write, direct and act in front of your own camera. I think he might best have been advised to use a different director (Huda is credited as an associate producer – why didn’t he direct?). I think a more genre-based film might have been tighter and more coherent – but then I would probably prefer the overall message of this film (breaking the circle of violence) rather than the typical genre film. In narrative terms, this takes place six years later (thus enabling the actors to play closer to their real ages). Sam (Noel Clarke) is released from prison and is immediately threatened with revenge for his actions at the end ofKidulthood short, I was a little disappointed in the sequel, but it was still a worthwhile effort. For me, the most revealing part of this is the difference that promotional push and a developed profile via DVD distribution can do for a film. Adulthood will end up making some 8 times more at the theatrical box office than Kidulthood. There is some form of lesson about distribution here. More importantly, perhaps, the success of the film blows sky high the industry belief that ‘black films’ don’t sell in the UK. Bullet Boy made £0.5 million, Boyz ‘n the Hood around £1.3 million (admittedly this was in 1991 – so at least double in 2008 prices) but Adulthood has topped that whilst not directly addressing cultural concerns. A wider audience seems to have had no problems with the film. The next step is to see whether Adulthood is sold overseas in cinemas. Kidulthood only seems to have got out of the UK on DVD or TV in the US. Surely the pair could be sold to France, Germany etc.? I’d rather they were exported than a Richard Curtis comedy.