The BFI’s London Film Festival is a wonderfully dense showcase of the year’s biggest and buzziest titles; however, amongst the glitz and glam, there is often a space for local discovery. This year, for me, that came in the shape of Bradley Banton’s delightful debut feature More Life.
Starring Hard Truths breakout Tuwaine Barrett, the film follows a group of old friends who reunite to celebrate one of their own opening a gallery show in Copenhagen. The history that binds the group is delicately revealed, morphing the 78-minute feature into a unique and thoroughly contemporary portrait of Black British life, not least because the entire feature takes the form of an Instagram live broadcast.
The film’s wider cast features Dipo Ola and Jordan Peters. The production was self-funded by Banton, but has received backing from Michael Fassbender’s DMC Film. Daniel Emmerson and Conor McCaughan of DMC are Exec Producers, with Hashim Alsaraf, Fabian Krohn, Tristin Norwell, and Teodora Shaleva serving as Associate Producers.
Below, Banton and Barrett speak with us in-depth about how they brought their self-funded project to life and how they managed to bring DMC Film on board.
LFF runs until October 19.
DEADLINE: Congrats on the film. It felt very timely to me. I’ve been thinking a lot about social media and how so much of the content on there is just a different expression of cinematic language. You guys bring that full circle with this film.
BRADLEY BANTON: Yeah, it’s crazy. I’ll be watching TikToks, and there are certain shots, like when they use different angles, where I think, ‘This is cinema.’
DEADLINE: It’s like all the Druski stuff.
TUWAINE BARRETT: That guy is the GOAT. I love him.
DEADLINE: Tuwaine, we know you from Hard Truths and some other works. Bradley, you’re completely unknown to many. Tell me a little about your background and how you got here.
BANTON: I’m Peckham born and raised, and have wanted to be an actor from the age of three or four. I remember watching the Power Rangers as a child, and I said to my mum I want to be a Power Ranger. She said you can be one. And I explained, ‘No, I want to be on the screen.’ She explained that that was an actor. I said, ‘Whatever that is, I’m doing that.’ I went to Deptford Green School and then the BRITs School, where I met Tuwaine. After that, I went to the Bristol Old Vic theater school, trained for a bit, and since then have been doing acting bits here and there.
DEADLINE: Tuwaine, how did you get involved in this project?
BARRETT: I’ve always wanted to collaborate with friends. After BRIT school, I went to Mountview. But Bradley and I remained close. This is a terrifying industry, so when you make true friends, you keep them close and you really know who they are. When I started booking stuff, and maybe Brad wasn’t, he was still there supporting me. When he came to me with this project, I said, ‘No matter the situation, I’m free and we’re doing it.’ We filmed this right after I’d wrapped on Hard Truths. It felt surreal making a film with someone I’ve known since I was 16 — it’s entirely his vision, and he crushed it.
DEADLINE: Bradley, talk me through how you constructed the Instagram live frame in which the film takes place. Did you have to design that? Because I’m assuming you can’t just go live on Instagram and record that.
BANTON: At first, we were going to do an actual Instagram live recording, but we realized it would have been tough to get the right comments on the screen. So, we did some graphics with David Akinola, whom I met via YouTube. He does some really cool video essays. We typed up all the comments one by one, all 1500 of them. We had to make sure they all appeared at the right time. David is the maestro on all of that. I just wrote the comments in the correct order and said what times they should appear.
DEADLINE: And what did you shoot on?
BANTON: My phone. We were gonna use a camera and stuff, but the artist in me thought nothing beats the authentic. And then, with my producer hat on, I knew that we would save a lot of money if we just did it on my phone. We did some tests, and it looked good.
DEADLINE: Tuwaine, that must’ve been a unique experience for you as an actor?
BARRETT: It was challenging, especially coming off Hard Truths and working within Mike’s process, to come and play a completely different character that shared many similarities with my own life. But what made that easier was acting alongside Jordan, Bradley, and Dipo.
DEADLINE: Was the film scripted, or did you improvise? It all sounded so natural.
BANTON: A script exists, but there was a lot of improv. We had only 48 hours to shoot it, so people were forgetting lines and adding things. The lines people were adding were so good that I couldn’t be so attached. It was better than what I’d written.
DEADLINE: Why only 48 hours?
BANTON: Budget. We only had a certain amount of time to do it. We didn’t use lighting. The crew was just me, one of my best friends, who was 1st AD, and then one Danish guy, Oliver, who did the sound. So we didn’t need long turnarounds. Everyone was being worked like dogs, but you can only get away with that when working with friends.
DEADLINE: This project was completely self-funded and produced?
BANTON: Yeah, I felt like we had to go that route because with a script like this, nothing really happens. And I feel like sometimes, as a Black filmmaker, you find yourself being forced into directions where it has to be about crime and things like that. That’s not all of our lives, so I didn’t even want to try knocking on doors with this project. I sent it to people I trust, and they gave me feedback.
DEADLINE: Where do you guys see as the ideal place for this film to be seen?
BANTON: I’ve always thought that if the film were on a streamer, people could just watch at home, and it could be really nice. There is something to that. But when we had the world premiere the other day, the vibe in that room was crazy. I didn’t realize that so many people found it so funny, and how the energy reverberated across the room, you just can’t beat that. So I’d love to see it go out to places where people can pull up and make it an event of sorts.
DEADLINE: Are you talking to distributors?
BANTON: Conversations are happening, but I take everything with a pinch of salt. The reception has been good. But it’s all about mobilizing because sometimes the people who have the power to facilitate things like this usually don’t know how to tap into people from the backgrounds that we’re from. So, because of that, there is some gaging and figuring out to do.
DEADLINE: How did the LFF premiere happen?
BANTON: That’s all DMC Film and Daniel Emerson. Six years ago, I was at Notting Hill Carnival, where I met a group of Finnish women. They invited us to a pub, where one of the women introduced me to her boyfriend, who she said was a producer. It was Daniel. We exchanged details. When we made this film, I sent it to him. We hadn’t been in contact for like two years, but I thought I’d try. He watched it and said he’d like to help us get it somewhere. He spoke to Kristy Matheson, who is a complete Don, and took a chance on us.
DEADLINE: Tuwaine, you’ve had an interesting career insofar as you’ve starred in a lot of pretty big movies. How do you feel about the industry right now and your ability to navigate it?
BARRETT: There are so many things being shot here, so it’s great for us. That doesn’t make it any easier, because we’re in a weird situation now where people have their set collaborators and don’t really give anyone else a chance. There are so many different walks of life and experiences you can find in new actors. I hope that in the future, Bradley doesn’t call me back and casts someone else, because there’s someone out there who can tell a story differently.
For me, I’ve been very fortunate with a lot of who I know, not what I know, and I embrace that. At the same time, as humans, we’re quick to jump to conclusions, rather than just seeing how things play out. I’ve tried to be patient. I’m still patient. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with going to America. I just don’t think that if I went there now, it would work out as one may imagine. Therefore, doing a project like this is much more fulfilling than going out there and just doing anything. This project means a lot to me and the team. In a couple of years, that’s when the blockbuster thing can come.
DEADLINE: In the next five years, what do you guys want to be doing?
BARRETT: I want to write. And that’s with the help of people that I know who are brilliant writers. I can’t do it alone. I want to write something original. But for now, I’ll just stick to the acting.
BANTON: I want to keep making stuff. Writing-wise, I want to be as prolific as possible. Also, acting-wise, I want to sink my teeth into stuff. I really want to do good, exciting, and odd work, like popping up in a Georgian art house film that ends up going to Locarno or something like that. I love comedy as well, so maybe doing a bit of that, too.
The post ‘More Life:’ Bradley Banton & ‘Hard Truths’ Alum Tuwaine Barrett On Their Self-Funded Hangout Movie Backed By Michael Fassbender’s DMC Films — LFF appeared first on Deadline.
