Black Sheep

BLACK SHEEP

By Daniel Carter

When Damilola Taylor, a 10-year-old British student, was tragically stabbed and killed by a youth gang in North Peckham, the nation shook. Cornelius Walker, a 10-year-old boy who lived in the immediate area, would find his life drastically changed. Worried for her son’s wellbeing, Walker’s mother decided to move the family unknowingly to predominantly white majority housing estate in Essex. Living in a foreign, hostile environment would prove to be painful and dehumanising. Forced into a false identity, Walker changed his appearance - wearing blue contacts, changing his voice and bleaching his own skin, trying desperately to fit in with a group that despised his race. This is where Black Sheep’s story unfurls…

This is Cornelius’ story. His words. His feelings. I have tried, as best as possible, to listen and empathize “and understand Cornelius’ very unique life story.

Laying claim to a host of awards, including the Aesthetica Short Film Festival's best of fest and best documentary in November, the short has been well received since its release this year. Touring the country at various festivals and picking up a few awards along the way, the Grierson award winning director Ed Perkins spoke to the Yorkie about the success of his short so far:

"It has been an immense privilege to win three awards at ASFF this year. Aesthetica is an outstanding film festival and it means an enormous amount to us all that Cornelius’ story has resonated so strongly with audiences and juries here."

We decided to go back to the actual town where the events happened and cast real people who lived in the area to re-create key moments from the story.

Perkins spoke of his decision to produce the short film with Walker after he had reached out to him regarding the film industry, the two sat down over a coffee, where they discussed Walker’s career and his personal life.

“As a documentary filmmaker you are always looking out for interesting stories, and the very best stories often come from the most unexpected places. Cornelius and I met, and after talking a bit about the industry I asked him a bit about his own life. And with all the charisma and elegance and bravery that you see in the film, Cornelius told me about his extraordinary life story. He just blew me away.”

The inclusion of Walker’s monologue drives the story, drawing from his own past experiences, convincingly presenting his past to the audience and adding a level of depth to the short film that it would have gravely missed without. Drawing from Walker’s real-life experiences, Perkins felt it was necessary to keep the focus on realism and an accurate narrative. Poised as a talking head documentary/drama, the production team employed a rare technique when dealing with actors. Casting only one real performer.

“We decided to go back to the actual town where the events happened and cast real people who lived in the area to re-create key moments from the story. Other than one actor (Kai Francis-Lewis) in the role of younger Cornelius, everyone else were essentially non-actors. The scenes are not scripted or rehearsed. They are loose, fragmented imaginings of the events Cornelius describes in his interview. We did not tell the actor playing young Cornelius what performance to give. We simply put him in various situations that were as ‘real’ as possible and observed his reaction just as we might do when filming traditional vérité documentary.”

Perkins described his own career in film to date, exploring his involvement in both feature length and short film. Expanding on this, he details his repertoire which includes his work on the ‘making of’ featurettes for the award winning features Searching for the Sugar Man and The Imposter. Perkins has an impressive haul of accolades for such a young director.

“My career to date has actually been a bit back to front. Traditionally you might make a short film first and then move on to making a feature length film but I - through youthful naiveté as much as anything - actually made a feature length documentary first (a film called Garnet’s Gold)… since then I’ve also made a series for TV called Bare Knuckle Fight Club and am currently in production on my second feature length documentary. So, its lovely to be jumping from short form to long form and back again! And I feel immensely lucky to be collaborating with producer Simon Chinn and the amazing team at Lightbox on all these projects.”

Speaking on the back of his success, Perkins developed further by commenting on his compendium of works and explains the level of gratitude he feels towards the stories and the people he regularly comes across.

“I think I’m proud of all the projects I’ve been involved in for different reasons, but much more than pride I feel a strong sense of gratitude that people have allowed me into their lives and trusted me with their stories. What we do as documentary filmmakers is a huge privilege, it really is. And it is all about trust.”

Other than one actor (Kai Francis-Lewis) in the role of younger Cornelius, everyone else were essentially non-actors.

“Without extraordinary people like Cornelius finding the bravery to sit in front of camera and tell their stories, we as documentary filmmakers have nothing.”