Heavy Load wins Audience Award at Britdoc
September director named one of Screen's Stars of Tomorrow
Los Angeles Times gives Heavy Load a great review
Heavy Load Gig in New York
Heavy Load premieres at South by Southwest
Heavy Load Review in the Austin Chronicle
Deep Water wins Best Cinema Documentary at the Griersons
Jerry Rothwell
Jerry Rothwell is a documentary filmmaker with a track record in broadcast films about arts, mental health and education. He recently moved to directing documentary features, including Deep Water (Pathe/FilmFour/UK Film Council, co-directed with Louise Osmond), about Donald Crowhursts ill-fated voyage in the 1968 round the world yacht race. He has just completed Heavy Load (IFC/ITVS) about a punk band made up of people with and without learning disabilities. Directing credits prior to this included The Late George Shaw, a half hour film for Channel 4’s Art Show series, two shorts in the Modern Painters series for Channel 4 and programmes for BBC, Carlton, Channel 4, Teachers TV and the Arts Council. Another strand of Jerry's work has been participatory production, working with people to tell their own stories on film. He played in lead role in developing Hi8us Projects improvised dramas with young people for Channel 4 and in establishing First Light, the Film Council's scheme for young filmmakers, and recently setting up a digital storytelling collaboration between marginalised communities across Europe. Contact: jerry@metfilm.co.uk
The New York Times
Heavy Load: "It’s about struggle, the efforts of an ensemble wrestling with artistic obstacles as well as biological ones. It’s also a portrait of British band life: playing in smoky pubs and studios and at outdoor concerts and hustling tracks to a music publisher. And it is a portrait of a nation with social services and a public so compassionate it makes our own look heartless."
