Talkies Community Cinema: Chuck Chuck Baby

We spotted this great British Inde at Margate Film Festival in November and were blown away with it. The writer/Director Janis Pugh is a brilliant storyteller and her Q&A afterwards was an entertaining insight into the making of the film in her home. town in North Wales. 

Talkies last saw lead actor Louise Blearley in ‘Brian and Charles’ and she executes her role in Chuck Chuck baby brilliantly.

It is a film of love and loss set amongst the falling feathers of a chicken factory. Featuring the inspiring music of Neil Diamond, Janis Ian, Minnie Riperton and others. (Securing musical rights is a story in itself!).

Present day, industrial North Wales. Helen, late 30’s, spends her nights packing chickens and her days caring for dying mother-figure Gwen.

Helen’s mundane world takes a surprising turn with Joanne’s return; they were the objects of the other’s secret teenage passions. Encouraged by Helen, Joanne starts a playful wooing game.  As they fall in love, Helen’s zest for life returns but Joanne feels the walls close in as she faces something darker from her past. Helen’s world shatters when Gwen dies and Joanne’s painful memories make her flee.

Both women reflect on their unfulfilled chance before finding the courage to let go of the past and allow their love to win.

Peter Bradshaw (Guardian) says” There is a terrific warmth and emotional generosity to this romantic comedy-drama from the Welsh film-maker Janis Pugh, and if the storytelling in the end hits some familiar C-major chords, it’s not before a lot of inventive entertainment with quasi-musical sequences showing people singing along to the radio or the stereo morphing into full-on fantasy. I can imagine this being a stage musical crowdpleaser with serious ker-ching potential, packing the audiences in like something by Tim Firth or Willy Russell” 

After the film, the audience is invited to join a conversation with Writer /Director Janis Pugh. 

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