Heart-wrenching indie film being made in the North East

A Loving Mother With Nowhere to Turn



concept photo pre-filming

 "PIMM Productions have pulled off an impressive catch in attracting the highly rated Sean Cronin to direct the short film ‘An Unfortunate Woman" ...

Cronin already has an impressive show reel as an actor, including roles in James Bond and Harry Potter films and has also Produced and Directed various productions. He is currently working on a multi-million pound period drama called ‘Irongate’.

Sean said, "I am incredibly honoured to be asked to direct AN UNFORTUNATE WOMAN it is such a wonderful, moving and important piece and I am equally honoured to be working with the producers and creators Paul Hodgson, Ian Carter and Margaret Collins who have worked tirelessly to make this happen' Bring on Cannes 2014 with a script like ours we cannot fail!"

The film written by Paul Hodgson, Margaret Collins and Ian Carter is to be shot over four day starting from 8th November at Beamish Museum and Consett Police Station as well in Darlington at the QE Sixth Form College and The Forester’s Arms.

Beamish Museum Schoolhouse (The Orphanage)

The story is set at the turn of the century and in the 1930’s and is about Darlington born Kathleen Mulraney, who was brought up in an orphanage run by nuns. Whilst she was there, she was brutally treated and this in turn affects her later in life. She goes on to marry and have a severely disabled child of her own called Derek, but Kathleen wouldn’t give up her child and even when pressurised by a Doctor to put him into an institution, her past comes back to haunt her. She feared that what happened to her whilst institutionalised would happen to Derek also, and so she took her sons life in order to save him from that fate.
 
Eventually, Kathleen is sentenced to death, but this was quickly quashed and she was instead sentenced to life imprisonment. However, a national newspaper took up her plight and labelled the killing a ‘Mercy Killing’. Kathleen was given much support and due to public pressure, she was released from prison within two years.

Producers, Ian and Paul have put together a really impressive cast including Birmingham-based actress Val Monk, who is to play the lead role of Kathleen.

Also included in the cast are girls from the Stagecoach Drama Group based in Darlington, among them Ellie Manvell who will play young Kathleen. By a strange quirk of fate Ellie’s Grandmother and Gt Grandmother were born and raised in the same Albert Hill area of town that her character Kathleen lived.

Ian explained, ‘We have received great support from Trudy Hindmarsh and the Stagecoach group, discovering that Ellie had additional ties to the same part of town as Kathleen was a real shock but we feel it is increasingly fitting that Ellie was selected’.

Paul said "Producing a period drama on a limited budget has been very challenging but we believe that people will be very impressed with the end product"

concept photo pre-filming

A brave and harrowing film that deals with an unthinkable situation for any parent, that allowing one's child to live would condemn them to a life in a miserable institution. We would like to think we have a better attitude to those of us less able than ourselves these days. But we need to be mindful of the changes happening now and the increasing pressure on people with disabilities to be assessed, lose benefits, be misrepresented and forced into poverty. We have to be careful we don't go back to a system like that in which Katherine Mulraney made her terrible decision. 

I know this will be a sad film to watch but I am looking forward to the premier screening. Details of the release and chances to see the film are to follow.