“This film is compulsive, experimentation with the documentary form is still possible” – The Independent on Sunday

“Nails the zeitgeist better than countless documentaries about Joy Division, The Stone Roses and The Fall” – Evening Standard

“Is this documentary at all? Not in any conventional sense perhaps, but it’s powerful, original and somehow, amongst the grime, poetic” – The Times

“Expansive, guided by a potent craft and a poetic, poignant heart” – Uncut

Carol Morley returns to Manchester, where in the early 1980s, five years of her life were lost in an alcoholic blur. The Alcohol Years is a poetic retrieval of that time, in which rediscovered friends and acquaintances recount tales of her drunken and promiscuous behavior. In Morley’s search for her lost self, conflicting memories and viewpoints weave in and out, revealing a portrait of the city, its pop culture, and the people who lived it.

Credits
Directed and Filmed by Carol Morley
Produced by Cairo Cannon
Editor Maggie Choyce
Composer Russell Churney
Lighting Camera Peter Bathurst
Featuring Songs by Stella Grundy and Spencer Birtwistle
Featuring Tony Wilson, Dave Haslam, Pete Shelley, Vini Reilly and Stella Grundy

Funded by Channel 4, National Lottery through the Arts Council of England, ACE Visual Arts and the London Production Fund

Prizes
Winner Best Documentary Melbourne International Film Festival
Special Grierson Award
Best Director BAFTA nomination

DVD
You can purchase The Alcohol Years from MovieMail or Amazon
The DVD special features include the director’s commentary and the short films Everyday Something and Stalin My Neighbour

Links
The Alcohol Years Q&A with Kate Muir on YouTube
The Alcohol Years Q&A on BFI Live
Interview with Carol Morley for APEngine

Selected screenings
Channel 4 and Film 4
Male, a group show of international artists curated by Irena Cercnik and Nevenka Sivavec, Gallery of Contemporary Art, Celje, Slovenia
Home Stories, Filmcasino, Vienna, Austria
British Airways UK Film Series, New Zealand – Aukland, Wellington, Denedin, Christchurch, Nelson, Palmerston North, Hamilton, New Plymouth and Mt Maunganui
AFI (American Film Institute) Int’l film festival, Los Angeles, US
45th Cork International Film Festival, Ireland
24th Sao Paulo Int¹l Film Festival, Brazil
DNET Festival of Electronic & Digital Art, curated by Lauren Cornell and Gary Thomas, London, UK
Regional UK cinema tour organised by the British Film Institute: London, Inverness, Cardiff, Canterbury, Nottingham and Manchester

Running time: 50 minutes, Format: 35mm, Year: 2000