An investigation into the lives of alcoholics and drug addicts
10 April 2012
Jez Lewis’s fly-on-the-wall documentary is set in Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire, where he was brought up.
The old mill town has a reputation as the Hampstead of the North, but also houses a large group of alcoholics and druggies, too many of whom commit suicide.
The main character is Cass, an amiable lost soul who tries to go straight. Lewis never quite answers the question as to why these people self-destruct except with various glib references to a broken society. Perhaps there is no single answer. The film’s chief triumph, however, is to show that few of them are stupid, or unaware of their likely fate.
Shed Your Tears And Walk Away
