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Former UEL student nominated for for two film awards

Tuesday 13 April 2010

UEL Cultural Studies student Jez Lewis

Former University of East London student, and now independent film-maker, Jez Lewis, has had his film Shed Your Tears and Walk Away nominated for two awards at the East End Film Festival.

The film, which is released through Jez’s own production company Bungalow Town Productions, addresses the social dichotomies of modern British society by alerting the audience to the deeply-troubled and often ignored underclass, caught up in a cycle of drink, drugs and despair, who share the picture-postcard Yorkshire town of Hebden Bridge with its many tourist visitors.

The film, which credits Jez’s brother Phil (also a former Cultural Studies student at UEL) as Associate Producer, has been nominated for both Best UK Debut Feature and Best Documentary at the festival.

Originally inspired by a photomontage Jez created while he was a Cultural Studies student at UEL (Hebden Bridge is Jez’s hometown), the film was described as ‘a raw, genuinely affecting discovery’ and ‘an exceptional documentary’ following its premier at the London Film Festival in October last year.

Jez says of the film: “This is a film I never wanted to make. In the past, friends had suggested I return to my home town to make my first film after hearing about my background. I’d always said that I didn’t want to because I left that difficult life behind when I went away to university; probably the first person from my neighbourhood to do so. Five people from our street had committed suicide, as had several other friends and we were angry that no-one else seemed to be joining the dots and seeing that there was a real problem here. We felt we must do what we could to bring it out of the shadows and show the situation not as a statistical phenomenon, but as a human tragedy with real people and complex, individual stories”.

Shed Your Tears and Walk Away will be screened at the Barbican on Monday 26 April as part of the East End Film Festival and will be followed by a Question and Answer session with Jez.

Notes to Editors

The University of East London (UEL) is a global learning community with over 28,000 students from over 120 countries world-wide. Our vision is to achieve recognition, both nationally and internationally, as a successful and inclusive regional university proud of its diversity, committed to new modes of learning which focus on students and enhance their employability, and renowned for our contribution to social, cultural and economic development, especially through our research and scholarship. We have a strong track-record in widening participation and working with industry.

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