Justin Edgar
Justin Edgar
Film Maker & CREATIVE DIRECTOR at 104 Films
Big Thanks to Justin Edgar for Guest Seminar he gave us, March 2023
Showreel
SPECIAL PEOPLE
Watch full film here
Interviews on Youtube
Biography: ”I was born in Handsworth, Birmingham in 1971 and diagnosed as hard of hearing as a teenager.
I graduated from Portsmouth University with a First Class degree in Art and Design in 1996, focussing on disability art and film. I then trained as a director and began directing soap operas for the BBC. In 2001, I made my first feature film Large for Film Four on a budget of £1.7 million. It sold to twenty countries and went to number one in the UK video charts. I went on to direct Special People (2008), an improvised comedy about able bodied misconceptions of disablity which won an RTS award and the audience award at the Berlin Britspotting and Moscow film festivals. We are the Freaks (2013) was my next feature film about teenage punks in 1990 Birmingham, which premiered in competition at the Edinburgh Film festival and was then bought by Netflix. My latest film as director The Marker, a film noir starring Frederick Schmidt, Ana Ularu, Cathy Tyson and John Hannah also premiered at Edinburgh and went to Netflix.
In 2004 I set up 104 films, a production and training company specialising in disability and film. We worked on BAFTA nominated films such as the Ian Dury biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, Notes on Blindness and Oscar shortlisted documentary Unseen.
In 2020 I had my first professional artists commission from the Arts Council’s Unlimited funding for the Visual Arts exhibition Reasonable Adjustment which opened at the Art House and toured to Attenborough Arts Centre and The Sem Barreiras Festival in Brazil. An online version opened in 2021 as part of the Southbank Centre’s Unlimited Festival.
Recently I have been working with BBC Birmingham Drama on implementing a new disability code of practice plus sitting on the disability round table for the British Film Institute (BFI) which has led to the “Completely Reasonable Adjustments” policy changes adopted by the BFI. I also sit on the Screen Skills bursary steering group. I have written extensively for the Guardian and appeared on BBC Radio 4 and Channel 4 news advocating for better representation of disabled people behind the camera. In 2013 I met the Queen to talk about my work in disability and film.
I am a visiting lecturer at the National Film and Television School and a voting BAFTA and BIFA jury member. This year I have been asked to write a book for Bloomsbury about New Disability Cinema in the UK and my film prints, including Special People, have been archived at the BFI as works of cultural significance.
As well as running 104 films, I’m currently developing a film about the relationship between Sid Vicious and his mother Anne Beverley for Hanway Films and Hurricane Pictures funded by Creative Europe’s MEDIA programme.
You can watch my showreel HERE
My agent is Tracy Hyde at Casarotto Ramsay
Biography at: http://www.104films.com/team/
Showreel: https://vimeo.com/194651225