World premiere of Hucknall man's debut short film raises over £300 for The Alzheimer's Society

The world premiere of a short film written and directed by a man from Hucknall took place at The Arc Cinema in the town centre last night (Friday 3 December).

'A Picture of Memory' which was the created by 24-year-old filmmaker Brad Severn was shown to an audience for the first time, just after 7pm.

The premiere was part of a fundraising event for the Alzheimer's Society and a percentage of the ticket sales will be donated to the charity. There was also a raffle with around 20 prizes and various collection buckets. The final total of money raised is expected to exceed £300.

The film tells an extremely touching story of Alan, a World War Two veteran, battling to remember the war and the friends he fought alongside by persistently visiting the cinema to watch the same war film.

Speaking exclusively to Hucknall Nub News, Mr Severn, whose grandfather suffered from Alzheimer's, said: "The feedback was amazing, we've managed to raise loads of money for charity as well, we're really impressed with how it looked on the screen, I just thought it was an amazing experience, I'm really proud of it.

"It's a little bit unreal, really. It was fantastic having friends and family here to support me and then also members of the Hucknall community, it's awesome to see support for local filmmaking.

"One of my lifetime achievements was having something I made on the big screen. It was always a dream and I've achieved that so I'm really proud of that.

"The support from Mark (Gallagher, the cinema manager) and the staff here has been absolutely amazing. They've been more than happy to help in any way they can. Having an event set up here to raise as much money as we can for Alzheimer's has just been awesome."

Hazel Tengku Chik Melewar, who works for the Alzheimer's Society attended the event to represent the charity. Speaking exclusively to Hucknall Nub News, she said: "We're so grateful that people like Brad will share their talents to earn money for the Alzheimer's Society, that's just wonderful, so a big thank you to him.

"Especially as we lost so much money during the Covid lockdown, our income diminished tremendously so efforts like this are so much appreciated. It meant that we had to reduce some of the money that we could put into research for example, and if we're slowing down on research it means we're not going to be finding that (way of) preventing it or curing it in any way.

"The money that people like Brad raise for us, helps to make up those funds. And for providing support to all the local people that are affected by dementia. We need the money to pay all the staff to do the dementia advice as I do.

Asked her opinion on 'A Picture of Memory', Hazel added: "I thought it was very moving and it's a very accurate portrayal. We have many people who will see or do the same thing over and over again because it does bring back lovely memories for them and sometimes that's all there is at the end, the memories that they've got."

The film has now been uploaded to Youtube and is available to view for free here. However, anyone who watches the film and feels they would like to make a donation to the Alzheimer's society can do so here.