DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
There was a script. It was written when these guys were born, leaving them pre-destined to a life of crime. When I walked on to 'the set', it meant walking into their world, a world that every moviegoer is familiar with: For sure murders, kidnappings and drug deals - though not necessarily in that order.
The principals, all members of the Noonan crime family, are well-versed in the film grammar of Scorsese and Tarantino, just like the rest of us. They live in their own movies, daily imitating those sounds, swaggers and even storylines of popular culture, but they can't hide their ill-fitting suits and Manchester accents.
I wanted the viewer to discover this world just as I did one nerve-wracking step at a time. I want those watching to touch, smell and breathe the grit of this gangster and his family from the inside out.
In three years of watching the Noonans at close quarters I was shocked and appalled, but I was also touched by what unfolded. I challenge anyone to view these frighteningly colourful lives using only a black and white prism.
I first met Dominic Noonan, the head of the family, in Britain's high security Belmarsh Crown Court. "Everybody I know wants to kill you. My brother was asked to whack you - I can see the job isn't done", he said. It's a chat-up line you remember. It led me on an unforgettable path."
This is a gangster movie,
first and foremost. All the universal gangster themes are there, - death, family, revenge, and innocence. There are murders, funerals, trials and acquittals, but in this instance all the actors, the set and the consequences are very real. It's a movie disguised as a documentary.There was a script. It was written when these guys were born, leaving them pre-destined to a life of crime. When I walked on to 'the set', it meant walking into their world, a world that every moviegoer is familiar with: For sure murders, kidnappings and drug deals - though not necessarily in that order.
The principals, all members of the Noonan crime family, are well-versed in the film grammar of Scorsese and Tarantino, just like the rest of us. They live in their own movies, daily imitating those sounds, swaggers and even storylines of popular culture, but they can't hide their ill-fitting suits and Manchester accents.
I wanted the viewer to discover this world just as I did one nerve-wracking step at a time. I want those watching to touch, smell and breathe the grit of this gangster and his family from the inside out.
In three years of watching the Noonans at close quarters I was shocked and appalled, but I was also touched by what unfolded. I challenge anyone to view these frighteningly colourful lives using only a black and white prism.
I first met Dominic Noonan, the head of the family, in Britain's high security Belmarsh Crown Court. "Everybody I know wants to kill you. My brother was asked to whack you - I can see the job isn't done", he said. It's a chat-up line you remember. It led me on an unforgettable path."
DONAL MACINTYRE
Donal MacIntyre is Britain's best known investigative journalist and his reputation for daring and bold exposes have won him many awards and plaudits. His investigations have also made him enemies and over the last six years he has endured death threats, kidnapping attempts, assaults, and has been forced to live in safe houses with bodyguards.
MacIntyre has reported from Beirut, Bosnia, the Congo, Belfast, and Burma but it is his ten years of undercover work for the BBC, ITV, Sky and Five in the UK, which sealed his reputation as a brave and courageous reporter.
In that guise he has tackled a huge range of issues including care home scandals involving the abuse of the elderly and the learning disabled, international trade in endangered animals, the trafficking of sex slaves into Britain and the illicit arms trade in Eastern Europe to name a few.
He won two Royal Television Society awards for his first major story which saw him live 'Donnie Brasco' style for a year amidst English drug dealers and gangsters.
Most famously, though, he lived undercover for 18 months for the BBC, simultaneously infiltrating the worlds of fashion, football hooliganism, Nigerian conmen, high finance and care homes, sometimes changing roles, on an hourly basis.
Now, a director, MacIntyre has most recently shot a series of hard hitting anti-smoking commercials in the UK, one of which was banned by the Government.
Donal MacIntyre is Britain's best known investigative journalist and his reputation for daring and bold exposes have won him many awards and plaudits. His investigations have also made him enemies and over the last six years he has endured death threats, kidnapping attempts, assaults, and has been forced to live in safe houses with bodyguards.
MacIntyre has reported from Beirut, Bosnia, the Congo, Belfast, and Burma but it is his ten years of undercover work for the BBC, ITV, Sky and Five in the UK, which sealed his reputation as a brave and courageous reporter.
In that guise he has tackled a huge range of issues including care home scandals involving the abuse of the elderly and the learning disabled, international trade in endangered animals, the trafficking of sex slaves into Britain and the illicit arms trade in Eastern Europe to name a few.
He won two Royal Television Society awards for his first major story which saw him live 'Donnie Brasco' style for a year amidst English drug dealers and gangsters.
Most famously, though, he lived undercover for 18 months for the BBC, simultaneously infiltrating the worlds of fashion, football hooliganism, Nigerian conmen, high finance and care homes, sometimes changing roles, on an hourly basis.
Now, a director, MacIntyre has most recently shot a series of hard hitting anti-smoking commercials in the UK, one of which was banned by the Government.