Project Detail

Shed Your Tears And Walk Away

Jez Lewis

Synopsis

The small UK town of Hebden Bridge, where film-maker Jez Lewis grew up, is a beautiful and quirky rural idyll. But while it is paradise to many, it is purgatory to others. In the twenty years since he left, dozens of Jez's old friends have died young, many of them through suicide and drug overdoses.

Beginning with a personal quest for understanding, the film moves into a year-long drama of human tragedy and redemption as Jez re-bonds with his oldest friend Cass.

Coming to terms with his own imminent mortality, Cass attempts to lift himself out of the cycle of self-destruction he has lived amidst for so long. Around this emerges an intimate study of a place claimed to be the funkiest town in Europe, but which harbours an undertow of lethal hedonism and disillusionment. As young people continue to die by their own hands, a maelstrom of conflicting values throws up unexpected truths about the human condition, whilst Jez finds himself drawn inexorably into the action.

Filmed among friends, with absolutely unrestricted access, Shed Your Tears And Walk Away is a searingly authentic portrayal of a marginalised and overlooked people who seem to have lost their survival instinct.

Details

Year: 2010
Type of project: Features
Running time: 88 mins
Format: HDCAM
Director: Jez Lewis 1st Feature
Producer: Nick Broomfield
Executive Producer: Nick Broomfield
Editor: Miranda Watts
Screenwriter: Jez Lewis
Director of Photography: Jez Lewis
Sound: Jez Lewis
Composer: Roger McBrien
Principal cast: Graeme Cassidy, Michael Silcock, Liam Jones, Simon Heyes, Christian Denneny