Hanging On

Alfie Barker is a rising star of Yorkshire-born filmmaking, with Special Education Needs? (S.E.N) (LIFF34), and now the moving Hanging On, which also played this year’s DocFest. This brilliant docu-drama spotlights community strength in Oulton, Leeds, when a neighbourhood is faced with eviction, and their homes with demolition. ‘An Irish Goodbye’ is a slang term for when someone leaves a party early without saying goodbye. In this Northern Ireland-set comedy, it refers to the mother of Tutlough and Lorcan, the estranged sons she leaves behind on their family farm, trying to find a fitting farewell, and each other.