![\"Carl](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_338A2527edit.jpg\")
Carl Hunter with Barbara Haugh, year six teacher and music co-ordinator at Arnot St Mary in Walton(Image: Hat Trick Productions)<\/p>\nThe Farm bassist and filmmaker Carl Hunter has directed a new documentary about Walton, aiming to change perceptions about the area following last year’s riotCarl Hunter with Barbara Haugh, year six teacher and music co-ordinator at Arnot St Mary in Walton(Image: Hat Trick Productions)<\/p>\n
When footage of Walton\u2019s Spellow Library burning during last year\u2019s riots<\/a> appeared across national news bulletins, many outside Liverpool – and even within – saw it as another grim snapshot of a \u201ctroubled\u201d area. But for filmmaker Carl Hunter<\/a>, those images didn’t tell the full story of a community he describes as “creative, supportive and intelligent”.<\/p>\n Best known as the bassist in The Farm and for his collaborations with writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Carl has directed a new documentary that looks at Walton<\/a> not through the lens of chaos, but through the eyes of the people who call it home.<\/p>\n The film, called Of People and Place, was born out of the anger and heartbreak of Jim Mulville, founder of Hat Trick Productions<\/a> and a Walton native, who was devastated by the destruction of the Spellow Library – a place that had meant so much to generations of locals.<\/p>\n Speaking to the ECHO<\/a>, Carl explained: \u201cJim was really upset by those images of Walton because he grew up there. He wanted to shift that narrative and take a different look at the area. When the opportunity came up, I leapt at it. I\u2019m from the Walton end of Bootle<\/a>, so I bring a working-class lens to it.<\/p>\n “I think the time is right to make films about working-class communities that act as an antidote to the anti-working-class propaganda we see in the media.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather than focusing on the riot itself, the film celebrates the creativity, resilience and intelligence of a community too often reduced to headlines.<\/p>\n He spent time with poets, photographers, grassroots groups and musicians who embody a very different kind of story. He also spoke to children from local schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cI interviewed poets like PJ Smith, who\u2019s done amazing work in drug recovery. I spoke to people from Our House, a grassroots group running courses for older people and young people too. I spoke to The Cheap Thrills<\/a>, a brilliant band from Walton Vale, and to Dan Astles, who\u2019s written a concept album about Walton.<\/p>\n “We looked at the importance of libraries – in particular the Spellow Library; libraries aren\u2019t just places where you borrow a book – they\u2019re hubs for knowledge, creativity, community and learning.”<\/p>\n
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Filming of Of People and Place(Image: Hat Trick Productions)<\/p>\n