For Jack Clarke, film was always a constant.
From the age of 13, he would go to his local Salford Precinct and buy as many DVDs as possible. Often buying the weird and wonderful over the box office hits, his love for film making only grew into a passionate hobby and future career prospect.
Now, after a long five years in the making, Jack, 24, has helped create an award-winning feature length film which is making waves across the industry with its diverse take on men’s mental health and its focus on Greater Manchester hotspots.
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Speaking to the Manchester Evening News , Jack said he’s got a love for film that started from his teenage years.
“I was born in Salford, I’m a working class lad. I couldn’t afford to go to the cinema to watch what was on, but I used to go to Salford Precinct where they used to have a market,” he said.
“The first film I bought was John Carpenter’s They Live. I watched it about ten times, it was so different from what was being shown in the cinemas. From there I bought as many films as possible and it became a hobby.
“I would get films that were extremely cheap, 80s flicks, films that you wouldn’t see in the cinemas and from there I started loving film.”
Jack began studying Media Production at the University of Salford in 2017, and it was during his final year that director Brett Gregory showed him the film script he was working on for a new indie feature film project. “I didn’t have much going for me, and when this came along I was eager to get involved in something industry related,” he said.
The film, Nobody Loves You and You Don’t Deserve To Exist, follows the main character as he navigates through bereavement, job loss and estrangement from family. Focussing on men’s mental health is something that Jack was drawn to.
“I just instantly felt I had to work on it. I instantly wanted to be involved in it,” he said. “The film is predominantly about male mental health and we follow the character through him being a child into being a young adult then an older adult.”
Another important aspect of filming was location - which was predominantly in locked down Greater Manchester. This gained the crew and production company, SeriousFeather, access to normally busy tourist attractions including the Cathedral, Manchester Fort and the Queen Victoria Statue.
“There has not really been a feature length film which shows Manchester off,” Jack said.
“We filmed during lockdown, all the key things in Manchester are now being shown on screen in a feature length film.
“I think it was a good thing to take advantage of the lockdown at the time, as we probably wouldn’t have been able to do it at that level. It’s a good thing we did it in response to what happened.
“Lockdown was obviously a terrible time, but thankfully it was quite busy for me. It helped to hone my skills.”
The film also features some stars including David Howell, best known for appearing in Brassic, who plays Old Jack, and Reuben Clarke, who played Tommy Shelby’s son in Peaky Blinders.
Nobody Loves You.. has since made waves across the world, winning 45 awards at film festivals and counting.
“We were nominated for the prestigious 'Capri Hollywood International Film Festival’ in Italy coming up on December 15 for ‘Best Feature Film’, as well as some smaller festivals in Germany and Spain over the next two weeks,” Jack added.
For a Salford lad, being involved in a project of this magnitude has been a fantastic opportunity.
He said: “It has been surreal to be involved in something like this. It was a project that was raw and honest. It was a project that nobody would fund so we’ve paid for it ourselves. But because of that, we had a lot of creative freedom with it.
“It’s been an amazing opportunity, I’m very passionate about working in this industry and it’s amazing to see where we are now.”
Jack has since graduated with a first in MA Media Production and is currently working on smaller projects and freelance work for BBC Sport.
Anyone wishing to watch the film can see it on Amazon Prime: https://t.co/KRY66HhWuI , or the film will be screened on January 20 next year at 7pm at the Leigh Film Factory.
For more information about the SeriousFeather production company, click here , and for more info about the film, you can head to their YouTube channel @LoveFilmExist .
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