Disability Challenge Remakes The Prisoner

A new film to be premiered at Cumbria's Tullie House on Thursday March 9th, presented a challenge in creative decision making for a group of people with disabilities. The Prisoner and the Ball of Evil is a short film which pays tribute to the 1970's cult TV hit The Prisoner.

Shot on location on the Solway Firth and in Carlisle, it has all the features of the original: a giant white ball, captives in a mysterious building, the prisoner himself - Number 6 - and unexplained happenings.

Marc McKiernan and Vicky Jones, from Haltwhistle Film Project, who managed the production said," Digital technology allows people with disabilities access to creative decision - making in film production at every level. This empowers people to develop their own individual set of skills and to achieve high quality end results."

Funded by North West Vision, the film is a result of a collaboration between Haltwhistle Film Project and Cumbria Care. Music was provided by local musician, Olly Alcock. The film was written, shot and edited by adults with learning disabilities.

Haltwhistle Film Project ran training workshops over several months before the group started to focus on a script and their own specific skills, from head camera person, Lisa Pringle, to soundman Shaun Liddle. In the workshops the group learnt a range of pre- and post-production techniques.

Two disabled users, based at Haltwhistle Film Project, Andrew Da Costa, and Shelley Makin, who previously worked on Coast To Coast, a film which included locations from the north sea to the Irish Sea, scripted and edited the film.

Number 6, the Patrick McGoohan character in the original, is played by Adrian Doccer. He stands beneath cloudless Solway skies and declares "I am not a number, I am a free man!"