Almost Liverpool 8 film is coming to cinemas this week

The documentary is a love letter to the L8 postcode. It was produced by independent film company Shut Out The Light which was founded in Liverpool in 2014 by Christie Allanson and Daniel Draper.

They’ve previously produced and distributed two feature-length documentaries, Nature of the Beast and The Big Meeting, both of which were released theatrically in UK cinemas and received positive national reviews.

From Turner Prize winning projects to a new generation of poets and artists, this film heads into the heart of the community to meet photographers, beekeepers, urban griots and the people that make Liverpool 8 a model example of a modern community.

Filmmaker Daniel Draper says the film has been received well by people in the local community. He is also keen to stress that this is not a definitive film about Liverpool 8, it’s the producers interpretation of the area.

He said “Every corner you turn in the postcode is rich with characters. Our approach was just to go out on the street with our cameras, much like Don McCullin or another street photographer would do. Through doing that we met people who we ended up interviewing for the film. Sometimes we’d be walking along the street and decided to knock on the door of a business, other times in would be on a whim, like interviewing the landlady of Peter Kavanaghs or the owner of my favourite chicken shop.”

Almost Liverpool 8 was screened at international film and arts festival Sheffield DocFest earlier this year. Nearly 800 people turned out for the first public screening of the documentary at The Philharmonic in Liverpool, the next screening at FACT is already sold out but it will also be shown at The Everyman cinema before a wider release.