Filtering by Tag: calm

After The Sea - Beginnings





When I was on Sheringham beach, writing this note, it was about three months after a man I had grown up with and considered a brother— along with his brother and my actual brother— had taken his own life. All four of us grew up together, were in a typical teenage band together, and when those three went to University and I was still at college, I used to visit them, where Sam would 'show me the ropes'-- which was generally failing to chat up girls, eating large pots of Tesco humous and learning how to carry 5 VKs on each hand by jamming your finger into the top. 

When he died our worlds were shattered, as was the case for everyone who loved him--  which was pretty much everyone he met. Sam was a brilliant, witty, kind, generous man who shone in everything he did. It was impossible to not be drawn to his hilarity and inherent goodness. He possessed an unrivalled skill for story telling, which he performed with brutal honesty— to the point where sometimes a fiction would be more believable, and probably less disgusting. He also lived to help other people, and was ferociously self-less, unaffected and genuine. 

I had also recently broken up with my long-term partner, it was a really shit bit of life.   







After The Sea is due to be shot in Sheringham in May 2017. We are currently in pre-production, and are working towards making a beautiful, emotionally affecting short film which aims to raise awareness for the phenomena of male suicide. We will be campaigning for charities such as CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably) through the production of the film, hoping to raise money for and draw attention to, male suicide and mental illness in general.










Tom Leatherbarrow is a film and theatre writer & director currently based in Brighton. 




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