Director Sean McAllister has slammed the decision to give his
documentary depicting poverty in Hull a 15 rating as “insulting
and devastating”.
A Northern Soul follows warehouse worker Steve Arnott as he brings his
hip-hop bus to disadvantaged children in Hull’s poorest areas in the wake
of year-long celebrations for the City of Culture – all while navigating
poverty himself.
The BAFTA-nominated director had hoped to put on showings
of the fi lm for children to educate them on the realities of life on
the breadline.
But his plans have been scuppered by the British Board of Film
Classifi cation (BBFC), which has given the movie a 15 rating, citing the
20 “fucks” uttered by protagonist Steve.“I suspect it’s more to do with poverty than
it is to do with the f-word,” said Sean.“There
are a few scenes where Steve is in debt and
in di culty, but it’s so far removed from their
world that they’d probably say, ‘That’s scary,
better give that a 15.’”
A Northern Soul was given a 12A rating locally in She eld and in
Hull until Friday (August 17) when it was changed to 15.
But it would need to be recut to shave the f-bombs down to just
four if it was to earn that rating when it opens nationally later this week.
He said: “There’s no violence, no sex, no aggression, just a bloke inspiring
kids to get out and do good things in really di cult times. But no, it’s a 15
because the f-word’s used. I’d hate to recut it and use the wrong fucks.”SED
T
he government has rolled out
its plans to tackle rough
sleeping and the social housing
crisis – but no-one was around
to debate it.
The rough sleeping strategy landed last
Monday (August 13), nine months after the
government formed an advisory panel but
promised a £100m focus on prevention,
intervention and recovery.
That included £30m to help frontline NHS
staf deal with mental health and substance abuse,
specifi cally targeting the drug spice.
The long-awaited social housing green paper,
announced a year ago in the wake of the Grenfell
disaster by then-Communities Secretary Sajid
Javid, had been delayed to the autumn.
But it arrived last Tuesday, promising
landlord league tables and a reformed
complaints policy.
Jav id’s successor James Brokenshire
also unveiled plans for garden communities on
Wednesday, as well as launching the £200m
Midlands Voluntary Right to Buy Pilot
on Thursday.
But the timing of the announcements comes
right in the middle of the parliamentary recess,
which runs until September 4, ensuring the plans
would not be debated in Westminster.
Despite that, the rough sleeping strategy came
under fi re from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn,
who insisted the plan featured “no new money”,
while industry experts called for the social
housing plans to go further to build the number
of af ordable houses needed to beat the
housing crisis.e government has
unveiled its future
housing vision and a
whole lot more...
during summer recess
DIRECTOR R AGES AT FILM CLASS(IFICATION) ROW
students last year. “If young black students wish to study at
one of the best universities in the world, the opportunity is
yours for the taking.”
Rock band Pearl Jam have also made a noise about alleviating
homelessness with two huge Seattle gigs that raised $11m (£8.6m) to
tackle the problem in their home city.
The grunge veterans inspired 160 businesses, gig-goers and
foundations to band together to raise the cash as part of their
Home Shows Initiative last week.
The proceeds from the Safeco Field shows went to dozens of
homelessness charities across Seattle, where the numbers living on
the streets are the third worst in the US, with more than 12,
residents o cially homeless.
Addressing the crowd, lead singer Eddie Vedder said: “This city
of Seattle could prove to the rest of the nation that if it could
happen here it could happen anywhere, and we can eradicate this
problem of homeless neighbours in our city when we’re as
profi table as we’ve ever been. It’s a wave and all of us are the water.”