Faith without work is dead.

Three Bull-Mastiffs came to life on the 79 bus to Wavertree, and marked the end of a year-long writing drought. I’d arrived in Liverpool 5 month prior, and in those 5 months the process of having a good hard look at myself was well underway. With the clarity provided by early recovery I started to see my past for what it was. Not the fiction I’d painted it to be in addiction. Three Bull-Mastiffs is that really, a retrospect, an honest review of the feelings and themes that I ran from, repeated and tried to change. Usually based out of fear, insecurity and a warped sense of masculinity.

Not long after writing the piece my old friend Paul Chambers called. The lockdown had just begun and we were settling into our 3/4th week of isolation. We caught up, chewed the fat and he asked me if I’d been writing. To which I replied yes. We’d worked together previously after a chance meeting around a Scottish campfire. I sent him over my most recent stuff including Three Bull-Mastiffs. Paul loved the visual elements of the poem which led to further discussion. We began passing notes back and forth in a google doc. Notes then turned into a script. From there it snowballed really.

Paul is a great motivator who’s incredibly hard working. This 100% rubbed off on me, we were both on the same page. We wanted to make this a reality. To do it justice we thought to crowdfund, something neither of us had done. Paul put together the teaser for the campaign combining old footage from previous projects photography and excerpts from the poem. The Crowdfund was an overwhelming success. And so began the work of production. From the get go we decided we wanted to cast people from the recovery community in Liverpool, alongside professional actors. It was a very fluid organic process. We held casting workshops and allowed discussion to take place allowing real life experience to inform the narrative. Constantly working it into the script. It was surreal seeing my words, real experiences being acted out before me. This level of surrealism would continue right up to filming. It’s still there now to be fair.

Filming began in December 2020, and was shot over 4 days in Irlam, Manchester. Cinematographer Owen Cant had joined in the months leading up as DOP. Owen really brought another dimension to the project by putting forward the idea of shooting on 16mm film, we agreed. Owing its aesthetic to the authenticity of the story being told. Filming was a bizarre emotional yet beautifully cathartic experience, the epitome of turning pain into purpose. The whole cast and crew were wonderful, seeing a working film crew in itself was an experience, a well oiled machine of efficient creative collectivism.

Having the recovery community onset was equally as beautiful, all involved were naturals and the vibe they brought was one of love. Charles Humphreys, the actor who played a younger version of myself was sublime. Seeing your darkest hours recreated in reality is a strange thing but one I am blessed to have witnessed.

In the run up to filming Three Bull-Mastiffs we noticed another story, which was running parallel to the narrative of the short film. The story of recovery, of what comes after addiction. We had begun capturing footage on a handy cam to capture the residents’ rehearsals and the atmosphere in Damien John Kelly house (A recovery living centre for men in Wavertree, Liverpool) prior to filming. Which is where I live and where we cast the lads to feature in the Three Bull-Mastiffs short film. We began developing the script together as a unit of people in recovery, to explore what can be achieved once we are freed up from addiction. How new interests and passions can be born out of our collective past, to show that recovery and addiction are very different things. A stigma is still in society, we aim to add to the antithesis of this stigma. To build on a progressive view of what people are capable of if given a chance, how community is integral to our growth and how embracing a new set of values opposite to the ones we held previously is the only way forward.

The very same lads who feature in the documentary are also responsible for documenting it themselves.

Throughout the project an impressive visual portfolio has been amassed, capturing what goes off behind the scenes when the cameras are there and when they are not. A large amount of this collection comes from ‘The One Day At A Time Boys’, a creative project set up by myself here at DJKH. Allowing residents to explore creativity in their recovery across a variety of different mediums, Its foundation however is firmly in photography. After I heard about socially engaged practise at Open Eye Gallery, we repurposed this into recovery values and how they translate into art, creativity and self expression.

It feels like we’ve come full circle with this project, not only emotionally, but visually. Telling the tale from both sides of the same coin.

The whole thing at times has felt like a dream but it’s not, it’s real. None of it would have been possible if it wasn’t for people’s love, help, support and care for one and another. We all have stories and some of the best are yet to be told, you can’t tell them all on your own. Faith without work is dead.

Find out more about the One Day At A Time exhibition here

Read A Spotlight On… Sam Batley here

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Images: Three Bull Mastiffs / One Day At A Time Boys, 2021 by Paul Chambers

Three Bull Mastiffs / One Day At A Time Boys, 2021 by Sam Batley

Three Bull Mastiffs / One Day At A Time Boys, 2021 by Matty Owen