21 L8 documentary coming to our

Love letter to Liverpool 8

ANNA MICHAELIDES gets the inside scoop on a new documentary exploring Toxteth over the past half-century

Liverpool-based film company Shut Out the Light Films has created a documentary to showcase their affection for the L8 postcode.

The documentary Almost Liverpool 8, which it is hoped will be premiered this summer, is a ‘historical and social exploration of L8 over the last half century’.

The original inspiration came from pictures taken 50 years ago in Toxteth by world-renowned photographer Don McCullin, who will feature in the film himself.

Shut Out the Light is a small team of local filmmakers who want to showcase the culture, art and community of the L8 they know to the rest of the country.

Almost Liverpool 8 was directed by Daniel Draper and produced by Christie Allanson, who have lived in Toxteth for seven years. They wanted to tell the story of the area in a unique way.

Dan said: “I suppose just living in the community you see little snippets and think ‘Oh, I would like to know a little bit more about that place where we get a kebab or a pint from’.”

When approaching interviewees for the film, there were certain things the team wanted to cover.

“Whether it be a little bit of activism, a little bit of architecture or history, we knew what we wanted to cover and approached certain people based on that,” said Dan.

“Other than that, it was more just a way of telling the story of the area today through people, because people are key.”

Christie is from Wirral originally, which was one of her main motivations for the making the documentary, sheShe said: “I would tell people I knew that I was moving to Toxteth and they would say ‘Oh, really? It has such a bad reputation’.

“So that was part of my inspiration, trying to say ‘Look, it’s really nice’.”

Dan grew up in Norris Green before moving to L8 and has been passionate about the postcode ever since and “wouldn’t really want to live anywhere else in Liverpool.”

He pointed out that Toxteth has a rich history, including the 1981 riots which consisted of tensions with police and violence for nine days, but said: “It’s home of one of theThe Beatles and so many other things, but we literally don’t touch upon any of that because it’s more about what you might not know.

“People have got something about them, they do what they want, they build houses or Barry has bees or there’s a pony riding school in Dingle.

“There’s something quite magical about that, we. We might live in an inner city, it’s probably run down, it’s under-funded, but it doesn’t mean we can’t have a riding school like you would have in middle England.

“So, I think we say things about the community and society but through people, and what they do. Rather than just saying ‘It’s rough round here but we get by’, we show it through a more poetic light.”

When asked about the most interesting part about creating the film, Christie said: “We didn’t ask people about the past or anything like that, people. People were naturally saying lovely, positive things about L8.

You’d ask them about their business and that would lead to them speaking so positively about the area and that positivity was lovely.

“I was already in some Toxteth Facebook groups and I’m aware of some things currently going on but,

Top: Don McCullin photographed in Toxteth in the 70s, Park Palace Ponies in Dingle owner Bridget Griffin Opposite montage: People of L8 ©

looking into it more, I can’t believe just how much is going on and how many talented people live here and there are all these amazing businesses. For example, Tocky Chocky does does artisan chocolate. I just can’t believe how much is going on, it’s great.”

Dan added: “The approach in the documentary was to show Toxteth from such a ground level that when we interviewed people, we never asked them about the past or the reputation of Toxteth.

“We, we wanted to show the area literally just through people. For example, we interviewed a newsagent, and he talks about Liverpool FC because he’s obsessed with them. All really and life that contributes to the greater community.

“The nicest part for me was interviewing the beekeeper called Barry Chang, who is originally from Jamaica, he. He was just amazing. He calls himself the bee whisperer.

“We interviewed him twice and kept on bumping into him during filming.After being with him all day you just have a different outlook, he. He just puts the world into context in many ways, through bees.

“His breakdown of bees in the film is lovely and it makes you almost think about how we could be better humans, if we could learn from bees and it’s just something you would never ever think about.”