Film
A Northern Soul
- Director
- Sean McAllister
- Certificate
- TBA
- Running Time
- 118 mins
What happens when the ‘City of Culture’ caravan moves on, the loot evaporates, and the hordes of arts professionals leave town, taking the media with them? Filmmaker Sean McAllister returned to his home city of Hull during its City of Culture year to act as creative director of the opening celebrations. He stuck around to make this unpatronising, observational documentary which poses some pertinent questions about social mobility. It focuses on a working class chap named Steve, who’s stuck in a crappy warehouse job and has a love of hip-hop.
The City of Culture year gives him an opportunity to set up his ‘Beats Bus’, taking music to council estates and schools that might otherwise not see any benefit from all that culture heading north. He also recruits a group of schoolkids to write and perfrom stories about daily life in Hull. It all goes swimmingly until the year is up, his bus is withdrawn and Steve goes back to a life of grotty low-paid work and payday loans.
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