SERC creative media production student Brian Milligan from Belfast

South Eastern Regional College (SERC) creative media production student Brian Milligan from Belfast was recently invited to showcase his production skills at the Belfast Feile Festival where his short film ‘Alone’ was be screened.

The film screening took place at Conway Mill Trust Drying room and was be followed by and question and answer session from the director to discuss how the film was made and the issues surrounding it.

The festival showcased two short documentaries from recent projects exploring issues of community safety and is supported by Féile an Phobail’s Community Engagement Programme funded by esmée Fairbairn.

Set in present day Belfast ‘Alone’ is a short film about a mother who is struggling with an addiction to heroin. It is a directorial debut by Brian who has produced, written and edited the film as part of his final year dissertation at Northern Ireland Film and TV School at SERC (NIFTVS).

Brian is better known for his roles in front of the camera in films such as Steve McQueen's Hunger, Anand Tucker's leap year and Jim Sheridan's The Boxer. His TV credits include hbo's Strike back, The Fall and The Frankenstein Chronicles to name a few. But he returned to college and enrolled onto a part-time HND course to develop his skills, knowledge and expertise. Brian said he was apprehensive about returning to college as a mature learner but he relished the challenge and enjoyed learning lots of new skills and techniques. He said he now has an appreciation of the many other roles involved in producing a film such as directing, scripting and editing.

Brian explains: “The inspiration for the film came from an idea I had when working on a script development class in College. I wanted to challenge myself with making a film with very little dialogue to see if I could tell a story only using visuals. I want to make films about the real world and the struggles that people face, sometimes due to no fault of their own.”

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