Renowned photographer Richard Billingham makes his feature-film debut with this intricate family portrait, inspired by his own memories of growing up in the West Midlands in the late 70s and early 80s, and then his father and mother in the late 90s.
Billingham revisits the figures of his earlier photographs — his alcoholic father Ray; his mother Liz; and his younger brother Jason — with a series of family vignettes where life, lived on the margins of society and societal taboos, can spiral out of control.
Director Richard Billingham and producer Jacqui Davies are both nominated for this year's BAFTA Outstanding Debut award.
MAC Birmingham - Thu 24th Jan 7.00 pm
Chapter Cardiff - Fri 25th Jan 6.00 pm
Watershed Bristol - Sun 27th Jan 5.00 pm
ICA Cinema, London - Tue 29th Jan 6.20 pm
HOME Manchester - Mon Feb 4th Feb 6.00 pm
Quad Derby - Weds 6th Feb 6.30 pmPhoenix Leicester - Thu 7th Feb 6.15 pm
Week Commencing 8th March
Week Commencing 15th March
BFI Southbank |
Belvedere Rd |
London SE1 8XT |
020 7298 3232 |
all week |
ICA Cinema | The Mall | London SW1Y 5AH | 020 7930 3647 | all week |
Kiln |
269 Kilburn High Rd |
London NW6 7JR |
020 7238 1000 |
all week |
Queens Film Theatre | 20 University Square |
Belfast BT7 1PA |
028 9097 1097 |
all week |
Quad |
Market Place |
Derby DE1 3AS |
01332 290606 |
all week |
Pontio | Deiniol Rd |
Bangor L57 2TQ |
01248 383838 |
all week |
Brunswick Moviebowl | Pennyburn Imd. Estate |
Derry BT48 0LU |
028 7137 1999 |
20 Mar only |
Born in 1970, Richard Billingham is an English photographer, visual artist and filmmaker. Recipient of the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in 1997, his work has been exhibited at the Tate, the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum amongst others. In 1998, he directed his first short documentary, Fishtank. RAY & LIZ is his first feature.
1998 Fishtank, documentary, 47 mins
1998 Liz Smoking, documentary short
1998 Tony Smoking Backwards, short
1999 Ray in Bed, short
1999 Playstation
2016 Ray, 30 mins, part 1 of a 3-part feature film, that became -
2018 Ray & Liz
Cast |
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Liz |
Ella Smith |
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Ray |
Justin Salinger |
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Older Ray |
Patrick Romer |
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Older Liz |
Deirdre Kelly |
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Lol |
Tony Way |
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Will |
Sam Gittins |
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Jason aged 9 |
Joshua Millard-Lloyd |
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Sid |
Richard Ashton |
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Richard aged 10 |
Jacob Tuton |
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Richard aged 16 |
Sam Plant |
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Hilda |
Mary Helen Donald |
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Cahill |
Sam Dodd |
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Cahill's Mum |
Zoe Holness |
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Zineb |
Michelle Bonnard |
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Crew |
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Written and directed by |
Richard Billingham |
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Producer |
Jacqui Davies |
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Director of Photography |
Daniel Landin |
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Editor |
Tracy Granger |
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Sound Design |
Joakim Sundström |
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Production Designer |
Beck Rainford |
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Costume Designer |
Emma Rees |
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Hair and Make-up |
My Alehammar |
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Casting |
Shaheen Baig |
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Music Supervisor |
Becca Gatrell |
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Art Director |
Laura Bishop |
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Production Manager |
Deborah Aston |
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Line Producer |
Greg McManus |
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Executive Producers |
Lizzie Francke, Adam Partridge, |
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Ed Talfan |
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Production |
Primitive Film |
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Funders |
BFI |
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Ffilm Cymru Wales |
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Severn Screen |
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Rapid Eye |
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Supported by |
Fidlab, agnes b. |
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UK 2018 108 minutes |
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Ratio 1.33:1 Sound 5.1 |
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Certificate 15 | ||
"The British kitchen sink drama receives a welcome injection of texture, fragmentation and rhythm in Richard Billingham’s Ray & Liz, a highlight of the 2018 Locarno Film Festival competition. Largely retelling his own troubled childhood spent in Birmingham during the Thatcher era, the celebrated photographer and artist’s debut feature is by turns brutal, tender and bleakly funny."
James Lattimer, Sight & Sound
"It’s the way art imitates, reflects and recomposes other art — specifically, Billingham’s much-discussed photography — that lends complex layers of memoir and mimesis to this singular spin on the British kitchen-sink drama, preserving both the director’s childhood and his creative evolution in gorgeous, grainy amber…
“Ray & Liz” stands as a uniquely moving work of self-identification and self-illustration, bristling with pride, anger and even some regret — for the general ugly state of things, certainly, but perhaps for a family he’s come to see, and shoot, a little differently over the decades."
Guy Lodge, Variety
"A striking, sustained artistic achievement… A beautifully understated, heart melting performance from Joshua Millard Lloyd is a stand out and gives the film a real grip on the emotions."
Allan Hunter, Screen International
"It’s a beautifully crafted and meticulously made snapshot of life on the margins of society."
Rob Aldham, Backseat Mafia
"The first feature from photographer Richard Billingham is a moving yet unsentimental portrait of a life in fragments, as empathetic as it is brutal."
Elena Lazic, Seventh Row
"A remarkable debut…an immersive poetic-realist dive into the artist’s fractured memories of his parents during the time he spent growing up in Birmingham in the ‘70s and ‘80s."
Rory O’Connor, The Film Stage
★★★★
“Billingham uses his talent for still photography as much as his own memories to craft a portrait of poverty without pity, through love laced with dysfunction…It’s a love letter as much as a demand for an apology, a reckoning with a life lived in decay which unfolds with a humble but powerful stillness.”
Ella Kemp, Culture Whisper
Interview with Richard Billingham by Elena Lazic in Seventh Row
Social media assets:
Captioned Clip - Rabbit in the park
Quote - Variety - Rare and remarkable