Director: Justin Chadwick
Country: UK
Year: 2010
Length: 98 minutes
Genre: Drama
Screening Times: Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 8 PM | Buy Tickets
Co-presented by the Institute for Contemporary Culture
Synopsis
Runner-up for the People’s Choice Award at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, this remarkable true story speaks to the universal human urge to improve our lives by improving ourselves.
When the government of Kenya announces it will offer free primary education for the first time, an eighty-four-year-old man, Kimani N’gan’ga Maruge (Oliver Litondo), shows up on the doorstep of a rural school, ready for class. A member of the generation that liberated Kenya from British rule, Maruge fought for freedom and endured horrors at the hands of the colonizers; now, he wants only the education that he never had the time or opportunity to obtain.
Festivals & Awards
Doha Tribeca Film Festival, UAE 2010: AUDIENCE AWARD, BEST NARRATIVE
Toronto International Film Festival, Canada 2010: PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD
Interviews & Reviews
The Promota Africa Magazine — Film Review: The First Grader
The Telegraph — The First Grader, London Film Festival, review
Thinking Faith — Film Review: The First Grader
Director’s Bio
Justin Chadwick was born in Salford, UK, brought up in Manchester and Bolton. His mum is an art teacher. Justin joined Bolton Little Theatre and played ‘Billy Casper’ in Kes at 11. He then joined Manchester youth theatre and played Jan in the world premier of Ian Serraillier’s The Silver Sword at Oldham Coliseum at 14. Justin graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Performing Arts Drama from Leicester. Throughout college he was part of NSDF (National Student Drama Festival).
Justin is an award winning theatre, television and film director who most recently completed shooting The First Grader, starring Naomie Harris for Origin Pictures / Sixth Sense Productions for BBC Films and the UK Film Council. His first feature film was the highly-acclaimed The Other Boleyn Girl, which premiered at the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival, starring Eric Bana, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson.
Previous to this Justin set-up the mini-series, Bleak House, and directed nine of the fifteen episodes, which were broadcast by the BBC in the UK, and by PBS in the United States as part of their Masterpiece Theatre series. He was nominated for the Prime-time Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special; the Royal Television Society Award for Breakout Performance Behind the Scenes; and, the BAFTA Award for Best Direction for his work on Bleak House, which was the Best Drama Serial winner at the British Academy Television Awards 2006. Bleak House was nominated for two Golden Globes, three Satellite Awards and won at the Royal Television Society Awards, the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards and the Television Critics Awards.
Coming from a background in acting, he started his directorial career in the theatre with award winning productions including Moliere’s Hypochondriac at the Assembley rooms during the Edinburgh Festival. He made his television debut with the 1993 television movie Family Style starring Ewan McGregor, after which he directed and performed in Shakespeare Shorts, a series that explored the history of Shakespearean characters and presented them in key scenes from the plays in which they appeared. He directed episodes of East Enders, Byker Grove, The Bill, Spooks, and set-up the series for Red Cap and Murder Prevention.
Justin is also developing several projects including the screen version of the Daphne du Maurier novel, Jamaica Inn, for Focus Films, he is writing the adaptation for the multi-award winning novel, The Tenderness of Wolves, for Pink Sands Films/Film 4, which he will also direct, and he is attached to the Ron Bass script, The Godmother, with Unanimous Pictures producing, based on the novel by Carrie Adams.
External Links
Official Website
The First Grader Trailer
The First Grader on IMDb