DRUNKEN BUTTERFLIES | Garry Sykes

85 mins, 2014

Produced by Rockhopper Media

Official Selection LONDON INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL 2014

60 min cutdown broadcast Link TV 2016-2018

"I remember what it's like to start a fight with someone just because. To stand there screaming the f-word because you get off on the drama. To dare someone to hit you in the parking lot. This is a movie about female toughness... a side of girlhood - and maybe a class-specific side - that isn't represented often or in such a sympathetic way"

- BITCH FLICKS

DRUNKEN BUTTERFLIES blends authentic documentary material with dramatic improvisations by its young cast to explore the rules and rites of teenage life - for young women in particular - in the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. It's a film about moving through ever-shifting worlds, at a time of life when our identities themselves are up for grabs.

Chloe, Isla and Nicky have been best friends since childhood - three awkward, inseparable misfits taking refuge from their hostile peers in comic books and cartoons watched during endless slumber party weekends for as long as any of them can remember. When Chloe started seeing local football chancer Liam and hanging out constantly with Liam's aggressive, "chav" sister Tracy Bell, the three became a two and Chloe was lost to the other side - dressing, talking and acting like one of them now. Today is the first time Isla and Nicky have heard from Chloe in months.

She's fucked things up with Liam, Tracy is out for blood, and so Chloe's back, tail between her legs, seeking sanctuary in her old friendships. Nicky's having none of it, but Isla's curiosity for Chloe's new world is piqued. Meanwhile, Tracy Bell's acolytes Sarah and Becca are feeling like their old friend and leader hasn't been herself lately and pin the blame squarely on Chloe. While Sarah schemes, Becca's thoughts can't help drifting to Liam. Chris - the lad Chloe was with lastnight - is newly obsessed with her, pulling out all the stops to sweep her off her feet tonight, while Liam's determined to drown his sorrows in the next lass he meets. The scene is set for a life-changing Saturday in the city, one from which no-one will emerge unchanged, all building to the most time-honoured of teen rituals - a disastrous Saturday night house party of murderous proportions.

The film aimed to merge influences from girl gang B-movies to Play For Today, reality TV to riot grrl. It was shot over three weeks using techniques usually more at home in the 'constructed reality' shows of the time - The Crack magazine christened it "the arthouse Geordie Shore". The outline of the film was sketched in advance, then altered and tweaked through workshops and discussions with the cast in order to more accurately and authentically reflect the world of a North East teenager. All of the dialogue was improvised through rehearsals and extended filming on set, conversations often running for hours at a time, with the final scenes constructed in the edit.

When released, the film proved controversial in some quarters of Newcastle itself, where it was assumed (incorrectly) from the advance press headlines to be a negative depiction of life in the region. In spite of this, our hometown screening at The Tyneside Cinema went down a treat with the fully sold out crowd. Drunken Butterflies was self-distributed and shown in cinemas, clubs, galleries and underground venues from Newcastle to New York City in the year that followed, as well as being recut for US television, screening on the Link TV network and repeated frequently over the course of several years.

"Stellar performances, evocative and powerful. All generations of teenagers will relate."

- VIVIAN KUBRICK, FILMMAKER & COMPOSER

Starring Leanne Rutter, Katie Quinn, Amanda Hodgson, Kate Knight, Lucy-Jayne Kelly, Michael Grist, Dean Bone & Tracy Bell as herself.

With Harriet Ghost, Sean Minto, Lois-Amber Toole, Ollie Clock, Mitch Donaldson, Rachel Spencer, Iain MacDonald, Elisabeth Oswell

Assistant Producer - Sam Davis

Assistant Director - Hestia Peppe

Production Designer - Judy Moore

Costume Designer - Emily Stuart

Makeup Designer - Beth Brown

Music - Shape Worship, Jason LaRay Keener, Peter Wilson

Director of Photography - Emily-Jane Robinson

Executive Producers - Richard Wilson, Anya Sitaram