Member Pepe shares her interpretation of the film Buddleia: The Unchained Story
As part of Clean Break's Film Festival 2024, we invited our Members to write about the films in our programme. A group of Members generously put themselves forward for the task, and have shared honest, heartfelt and insightful interpretations and reviews of the films.
Read what Pepe, who has a qualification in filmmaking, thought about Buddleia: The Unchained Story:
If you feel like your past is holding you down, then this is the film to watch.
This is an outstanding story that starts off in a sad place, but quickly becomes very positive, a moving and sensitive story that can uplift the downhearted.
Poet, mentor and life-after-prison advocate Brenda aka Lady Unchained, who is the focus of the documentary, explains her fall and rise, and her continuous uprising, while helping others to rise alongside her.
The film is a short and to the point documentary, explaining things very clearly with confident speeches. This helped me understand where the film was going from the start, and what message it was putting across.
Brenda says it as it is, speaking from her heart and from her life experiences. She openly and honestly lets the audience know how things affected her during her ordeal, which led her to prison and beyond.
When watching this film, I could feel the natural and genuine vibe coming from the screen, it's as if I was living the first part of her story with Brenda.
Brenda explains how being in certain situations can make you judge people, and also be judged. This showed her maturity in the film, how much she has grown. She let us know all about her inner thoughts, no matter how negative they were at the time.
The documentary is very informative, not just about Brenda’s own life, but about other people and places in the film. The way the information was given and passed over to the audience made it become more interesting as it went on.
At one point in the film, a mental health crisis Brenda experienced in prison was described. I would've liked to know what exactly happened to her before she was found on the cell floor. I can understand the choice to tell the story in the way they did, but as an audience member you form your own ideas, and I do not want to jump to conclusions.
I loved the natural loving vibe that Brenda had with her mother, and how her mother exposed her true feelings in the film of how she felt about the situation.
The face-to-face interviews that Brenda did with her guests were so cool, relaxing and down to earth.
To me, the making of the film was complimented by the art of the editing. The choice of camera art kept me focused on the close ups of the cutaways. The stills that made it a lot more interesting. There was always something to see and something to look at.
When watching a film, it's important to have good lighting and camera angles, this is what compliments the film, this film had just that and a little bit more.
The drone shots of the prison were brilliant. There's nothing like a bird's eye view in a documentary. I found it very creative and so touching.
The brightness of the lens helped me to focus on what I wanted to see, near and far. It was not just about what the camera person wanted you to see, you had a choice to look at whatever you wanted to look at.
Understanding how Brenda’s spoken word journey started with writing letters in prison, which took her on to becoming a writer, was very inspiring and also exciting.
Bringing people together from all walks of life and documenting it all at the same time was amazing to me.
Distributing art by people who’ve been in prison and mentoring them sums Brenda up to a T. The film shows her true character, showing how Caring, Honest, Supportive, and Giving she is.
We also see Brenda’s ongoing work with outreach projects, that again shows that this film is a thumbs up and caters for ongoing healing.
This film works in so many different ways, it was made to tell one of Brenda’s stories, but it also can help you as a viewer to look into your past mistakes, and see what you have learnt from them, or how you can learn from them.
This film shows you that you can take or make something positive out of a bad situation, opening your mind to positive changes can help heal your inner thoughts very quickly.
I am looking forward to seeing more from Brenda aka Lady Unchained, and hearing more of her stories. I enjoyed the film from start to finish, not one uninteresting moment.
Purchasing a Film Festival Pass gives you access to all films in our programme during the festival. Films will be available to watch on our Knowledge Hub from 23 September, and will expire after 6 October.
We've set a number of different price options for our Festival Pass, so you can chose an option which best suits you:
£30 Solidarity Pass + Tote Bag! - We'll send you a limited edition Clean Break Film Festival tote bag after the festival ends!
£25 Solidarity Pass - If you have the means to purchase a Solidarity Pass, your generous support will be gratefully received.
£15 Standard Festival Pass - This is the standard price for our Festival Pass.
£5 Low or no income Pass - If you are unwaged or are on a low income, you might like to chose this option.
£1 Lived Experience Pass - This option is for people with lived experience of the criminal justice system.
Purchasing a Festival Pass supports Clean Break's life changing work with women with experience of the criminal justice system, or who are at risk of entering it. We greatly appreciate your support!
