Who is this film for? That’s a question I found myself asking during artist and film-maker Matt Hulse’s ramshackle documentary. Aged 11, in the late 70s, Hulse formed a band called the Hippies with his older brother Toby, then 12, and sister Polly, then 8. He played drums – or rather chopsticks on cardboard boxes. In the promotional material for the film, the Hippies are described as Britain’s youngest post-punk band. But there’s no evidence here that they played gigs bigger than their mum’s front room, like hundreds of kids up and down the country. That said their songs – such as Rabies (“Rabies is a killer!”) – do have bundles of rough charm.
Sound for the Future is a real mishmash of a film, part docudrama with animated bits, plus tap dancing and spoken word performances by Hulse. He also reconstructs scenes from his childhood, collaborating with a group of bemused looking young actors from a Glasgow theatre workshop playing the Hulse siblings.
