Justin Edgar`s `Special PeopleÕ with Dominic Coleman and David Proud + Robyn Frampton and Sasha Hardway -- - The not quite ineffective Jasper(Dominic Coleman) is assigned a group of the very physically disabled and he tells them that theyÕre going to make a film. They take the piss but he then says he won a prize at the Warsaw Film festival, which impresses them even more! Now joined by another girl - theyÕre all wheel chair bound - he eventually gets them to show interest but they are more concerned about his love life. But their filming does begin. - ÔSpecial PeopleÕ, UK, 16mm, 80mins, was written and directed by Justin Edgar and produced by Alex Usborne (and the executive producers were Ray Seymour, Alastair Blacklaws, Mark Burgess, Andrew McNamara and Malcolm Cradock). This very sweet and endearing film came out of the same named short shown at the EIFF 2005 - that I saw and wrote - - ÒLucky third was -'Special people', Digibeta, 12mins, directed by Justin Edgar - teacher with a bunch of severely disabled kids trying to make a film. Brilliant sound and pictures, this film made me laugh a lot. phone 020 7688 0864.Ó - It is so unusual to succeed in expanding a story but it has worked here and because the actors are very disabled (and I refuse to spoil the story by correcting ther untruth here) it is so very heartening. So the film is fiction but there are moments of high emotion when really it has gone to documentary mode - the DOP is Zac Nicholson and I suspect there were wet eyes in the audience in at least 3 places, and there are examples of pretty good photography too. Kim Humphrey, who did the music, will go far, prferably not wheelchair bound! - The budget was 185,000uk which seems a bargain - and this flick is also in the running for the Michael Powell Award. For pure effort it is deserved (and the exec producers, who normally get no plaudits, have earned their praises here. alex@picturepalacenorth.com simon

great film heart warming yet stimulating