Mum’s Birthday
Ashley Shephard/Chris Robertson (Image courtesy of Pilton Video/City of Edinburgh Council.)
Mum’s Birthday is a multi award winning film written and Directed by Graham Fitzpatrick. It is a poignant film drama about a newly single father who must overcome despair to save his relationship with his son on his wife’s birthday. The film has been produced as part of Pilton Video’s Scottish Screen funded Creative Identities.
The plan for making the film at the outset was clear; bring together a group of Edinburgh’s most hard to reach and excluded young people who were willing to devise a story and perform in a half hour drama based on their lives.
The journey to make the work began in May 2009 when producer Sarah Drummond made contact with every residential care home and social work team in the city of Edinburgh, alongside several high schools within each housing scheme to gauge potential interest in the project.
I got involved with the project in November 2009 when I went in to audition for Graham. The audition was a very organic/improvised process that took time and had a lovely feeling of honest creativity matched with an atmosphere that put me comfortably in the situation there and then to begin to help create the character that i have gone on to play in the film – Jen.
watch mum’s birthday documentary
watch mum’s birthday film (Please note, contains strong language)
Cast includes: Elek Kish, Tam Dean Burn, Sharron Devine, Chris Robertson, Ashleigh Shephard and Naomi Cornwall