Dis Life

A group of people with learning difficulties come together in Walsall to rehearse a play based on their experiences of how society looks at them. As the play is performed we see re-enactments of wrongs that have been done to them – from out and out abuse, discrimination, mocking or just plain rudeness. Meanwhile we also hear some of them talk about their experiences.

For the Screen West Midlands funding stream "First Cut", 2004 was the year of the documentary and, yet again I held some vague aspiration to actually put my money where my mouth was and take part, however I never managed to get around to it! Seeing the end products, I'm not sure I would have had anything to really make a film about because the films are mostly pretty personal pieces. This film sounded like a real risk to me. On one hand you had a busload of characters all saying their bit but trying to do it in a 10-minute short film; then on the other hand it had the potential to be very corny and patronising. In some very minor ways it is a little corny but I was genuinely surprised by how much I was taken by the film and the people involved.

That they cannot act for toffee is a given but, other than making the play bits a bit poor, they do nothing to stop the film being enjoyed simply due to the force of their personalities. It is impossible not to be challenged by them because I know that, in real life, I would treat them differently as well (although not to the point of public mocking). Instead they come across as very interesting and funny people, with the film managing to touch me as well as make me laugh out loud. For this reason the film did work. I felt that all the "play" sections could have been totally removed and more time given to the bits that worked but it was still very good thanks to those other bits.

Overall, it could have been awful and have made me cringe but, apart from a few minor niggles, it didn't and surprised me by how good it was. I saw Bullock and Patel on a Q&A after the film and really liked how they were honest about the film and how unassuming they both were (particularly Bullock); they deserve praise for what must have been a challenging few days and for keeping this film at a standard I never thought it would achieve far less maintain.