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Project Detail

Dependence

A man holding a toddler on his shoulders

Synopsis

Grace has been filming her family since she was a child. Birthdays, Christmases, car journeys, ordinary Tuesday afternoons. Her father Richard was usually somewhere in the frame - elusive, warm, difficult to get close to, and addicted to OxyContin. They had a complicated relationship. Long stretches of not speaking, and tentative attempts to find their way back to each other. Grace often found a way back in with her camera. In 2013 she went home to film Richard and his best friend - his dog, Charlie. She thought she was making a black comedy. She ended up unexpectedly filming a funeral. And then, before she could finish the film she'd started, her father died too. For years the footage sat untouched. Too much to look at and make sense of. DEPENDENCE is what happened when Grace finally went back in. Sifting through 30 years of home movies, she sets out to do something both simple and impossible: to finally understand her father. What she finds is not only a story about addiction, but a portrait of a whole family.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2026 - European premiere - Winner - Audience Award for Best British Discovery

Details

Year
2026
Type of project
Features
Running time
94 min
Director
Grace Harper Brighouse 1st Feature
Producer
Alistair Payne-James, Caitlin Mae Burke
Editor
Vera Simmonds
Composer
Alabaster de Plume

Genre

Woman Director

Categories

Documentary

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

140 Films Ltd

27 Mortimer Street
London
England
W1T 3BL

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This page was last updated on 5th November 2026. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

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