Dad with passion for filmmaking creates wholesome short film with his daughter

Justin Walker created the 9-minute production called Elastic Bandit with his 10-year-old daughter Islien. 

Justin said: "I’ve been a massive film fan since I was a teenager and had aspirations of being a filmmaker, and that kind of died off, as it does when you get older.

“During the pandemic, I got this bug again for filmmaking cause everywhere was closed.”

Justin, who works in mental health services for Wigan and Leigh, explained the premise of the short film was inspired by a 1882 Western film he had watched this year. 

The short film was shot on a phone camera

He said: “I watched a film earlier this year called The Grey Fox which I’d never seen before and it was just wonderfully shot about the true story of a highway robber, got a prison sentence of ten years, comes out and the world he’s in now is very different from the world that he left and he can’t change his old ways.

“It kept playing on my mind and I thought what about reverse that and have a young girl in the modern world who has a fascination and love for Westerns and wants to live as a cowgirl.

“For me, it’s a bit of a homage to the Western films, but underneath it, some of the themes are quite relevant now about diversity and people being different; people feeling that they’re not fitting in."

The father-daughter production took eight hours to film on a budget, and is set to be screened at Lucem House Community Cinema in St Helens. 

The 41-year-old also shared how it didn’t take long to get his daughter on board as she herself has a background in performing arts.

He said: “She instantly wanted to do it, she’s a bit creative like me. The only thing that was funny was when I was telling her about Western, she had no clue what Western was, so it was quite a learning curve for her.”

Islien as Cowgirl (Image: Justin Walker)

The dad-of-two also shared the reaction he received during the showing of the film's rough cut at the local cinema.

He continued: “A few months ago, I went to show the rough cut to all the staff there and I got a really good reception, so I was really pleased.

“When I showed it to the staff, there was anxiety because you put your work up there and it’s going to be critiqued; some people might get it and like it and some people might think it’s a piece of rubbish.

“It was a dream come true, I finally got a film I’d done put on a screen and I felt pretty proud of myself.”

Justin would like to thank the team at the cinema for their support with his debut short film. 

Watch the short film here: https://youtu.be/gaepY59bfvg.