North East Events Company Field and Stage and London documentary company Dartmouth Films are joining forces to raise money to help release an important new documentary Someone’s Daughter, Someone’s Son, directed by Lorna Tucker.
Someone’s Daughter, Someone’s Son highlights the worsening plight of the homeless in the UK today and features well-known Tyneside former homeless man Earl Charlton. Charlton, who used to sell The Big Issue, slept rough for 20 years in the North East and was a drug addict. Today he is clean and a support worker fighting to keep people off the streets.
Tucker, whose documentary feature debut Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist was nominated for a grand jury prize at 2018’s Sundance Festival, was once a teenage runaway sleeping rough on the streets of London herself. For Someone’s Daughter, Someone’s Son she returns to her former haunts and speaks to current and former homeless people about why, twenty-five years later, record numbers of people are still reduced to living on Britain’s streets.
The partners are holding a special fundraising event, Someone’s Gig, that will take place at The Exchange 1856 in North Shields, on Saturday, September 23. The gig has attracted support from some well-known local and national names who will perform on the night and will feature an auction of donations to support Darmouth Film’s Kickstarter Crowdfund that goes live on 30 September and aims to raise a minimum of £20,000 to get the film distributed.
Tucker said: “This fundraising event is to help us on our way to getting our film seen in cinemas as well as community centres and village halls all over the country. I wanted to make this film devoid of poverty porn, not another film about ‘homelessness’ looking down on desperate people. I wanted to show there are solutions and use my lived experience to change consciousness.”
Charlton said: “We are looking for local North East businesses to sponsor the film and individuals to give as much as possible at the event. This is a really important film and we want as many people as possible to see it.”
Confirmed entertainment for the evening includes The Lindisfarne Story featuring Billy Mitchell and Ray Laidlaw; Alan Hull Award 2023 winner and North East singer songwriter Katie Grace; North East band Bear Park; guitarist, singer and songwriter Daisy Main; comic Fin Healy, and ‘one man band indie punkist’ Bugman.
Dartmouth Films seeks to “pioneer new ways of funding and distributing documentaries in the UK.” Last year’s Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War picked up the Screen International Big Screen prize for Best Documentary Capmaign.
