Disclaimer: this post was written in December 2023, and scheduled for future posting. Its contents may no longer be accurate or appropriate.
This is yet another video that has been languishing in my YouTube Watch Later list, waiting for the right time to post it here. Well, there's never going to be a right time, is there, but since it's been waiting for nearly seven years it's time I pulled my finger out.
The official description on Marr's YouTube channel told us this, back in 2017:
Johnny Marr has teamed up with the award-winning actor Maxine Peake to create a new project which sets Peake’s spoken word performances to Marr’s instrumental soundscapes. "The Priest" is based upon the characters that Joe Gallagher met on the streets in the first few days after becoming homeless in Edinburgh. Gallagher wrote a diary of his experiences for the Big Issue under the pseudonym James Campbell when he first became homeless in May 2015 and continued until he found a new home in March 2016.
The protagonist in the film, giving a face to Maxine's vocal performance, is played by Molly Windsor. And the whole thing is equal parts harrowing and essential, I think.
Powerful stuff.There but for the grace of God.
ReplyDeleteReminded me of the end of The Boiler by The Special AKA-another that lingers in the mind long after.
Yes, easy to imagine how easily it would be to end up in this kind of situation. As for The Boiler, yes, a powerful song and a difficult listen - as you say, it lingers long in the mind.
DeleteI remember watching this short film when it was first released back in 2017 - Johnny and Maxine talked to the press with immense passion about why they had made it and what they hoped it could do to change attitudes towards homeless people on the streets. It's really depressing that not only has nothing changed, but the situation in our big cities seems to be worse.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely got worse, sadly. People living in second-hand festival tents on patches of rough ground, and we call ourselves a developed country?
Delete