A Widnes theatre school owner teamed up with an independent Liverpool film company and co-produced a feature film on transgender issues, released last week during Transgender Awareness Week.
The owner of Widnes-based Elegance Productions, Kerry Williams, wrote and starred in the film, ‘Out of Time’, working alongside co-producer Michelle Billingham, director of Foot in the Door Films.
Ms Williams, who has been in the entertainment industry almost her entire life, found inspiration for the story while watching a news story about about a child who wanted to transition.
She did some in depth research and became obsessed with the thought – ‘what if my children felt the same?’ Ms Williams said: “I truly believe that this is a film that needs to be told, it’s a very important story.
“It really took hold of me, more than any other story has; I didn’t realise how emotionally involved I would become, I’ve never cried so much writing a story.”
The feature was originally written in 2013 but was ignored by many production companies until Ms William’s decided to take matters into her own hands.
Co-producer and director of Foot in the Door Films, Michelle Billingham, said: “My goal is to give script writers an opportunity for their story to be seen and this is such a powerful and emotional film.”
The film was directed by former Brookside and EastEnders actor, Leon Lopez, who has over 20 years’ experience across different media genres and is known for focusing on issues that he feels are neglected by the mainstream media.
Mr Lopez said: “I was honoured to be approached to work on this script; as an LGBT Director I was very much interested in telling this extremely important and sensitive story.
“With the Transgender community being heavily featured in recent media we wanted to tell a story that mainstream television and film have been afraid to talk about.
“I thought it was really interesting to see how would you deal with the fact that your child had been born into the wrong body, whether you agree with the situation or not.”
Child actor Frankie Friend from Liverpool, now 11-years-old, landed the star role at 9-years-old during his first ever audition.
He said: “The storyline of the script was quite hard; I found it hard to be that character because I didn’t know actually how it felt so I had to play what I thought it would feel like.”
The film tells the story of an 11-year-old struggling with the body they were born into, swinging between the perspectives of them and their parents as they struggle to understand and accept their child’s wish to transition.
Set in Liverpool, the film features a diverse cast and crew, including 43 intern students from Liverpool John Moore’s and Edge Hill University, some of whom are transgender.
To watch the trailer visit: https://youtu.be/HFwt6axwjHc.
To watch the film visit: https://www.amazon.co.uk/v/.
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