Oscar Wyndham Lewis’s animated alcoholism drama ‘Small Hours’ to premiere in Manchester this month
Skwigly
Robert Bathurst (Downton Abbey, Cold Feet) will star in Small Hours, an animated film about alcohol addiction written and directed by artist Oscar Wyndham Lewis.
Small Hours (Brungerley)
Bathurst voices the character of Jackson, a painter whose life has been hollowed out by addiction. In a last-ditch effort to seek help, he reaches out to his long-lost childhood best friend, Francis, voiced by Edward Franklin (The Sandman, Vikings: Valhalla).
Wyndham Lewis’s debut film, The Waves, about his personal battle with anxiety and depression, won Best Animation at the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival’s international film competition and was shortlisted for a BAFTA Award in 2017.
Eight years in the making, production on Small Hours, a hand-painted animated short film, was delayed as Wyndham Lewis himself struggled with alcoholism. Each frame requires an individual oil painting on a piece of glass, with more than 5,000 images produced to complete the film.
Andrew Gregory (Of All the Things, Alitisal), the health editor of The Guardian, is producing Small Hours via his production banner Brungerley.
This film is a window into the world which Oscar has created, reflecting a state of mind which many people could recognise. It is both deeply moving and very touching.
I admire Oscar as an animation artist. He has a painterly quality which creates his own reality and dreamlike urgency. The swirling style lends itself beautifully to the subject matter.
-Robert Bathurst
Small Hours will premiere next week in Manchester, England, as part of Recoverist Month, a month-long arts programme organised by the charity Portraits of Recovery, which aims to challenge perceptions of substance use and recovery.
A more recent experience of helping someone close to him with their own substance use issue also helped shape the film’s direction, Wyndham Lewis says. He hopes the film will resonate with people whose lives have been directly or indirectly affected by substance use.
I first drafted Small Hours in 2017, but the project was shelved for a reason that is tinged with irony. For about a decade, my life was stunted by alcohol.
When I started work on the film, I was in the depths of addiction and that got in the way. But I finished it as someone who is three years in recovery.
Though the film has dark themes, it carries a hopeful message. That message is simple: if someone in your life is suffering with addiction, the best support you can offer is just to show up.
There’s no need for grand gestures or profound words – simply being there can make all the difference. Addiction is often faced alone, and no one can get better by themselves.
-Oscar Wyndham Lewis
Small Hours: A Portrait of Alcoholism premieres Sep 22 at Manchester’s Everyman Cinema with a Q&A featuring director Oscar Wyndham Lewis and producer Andrew Gregory.