DRILL IT stars Josiah Oladoyin, Joshua Teya, Tommy Oldroyd, Jake McDaid and will enter the film festival circuit in 2021.
Synopsis: DRILL IT follows the story of Michael (Josiah Oladoyin) a sixteen-year-old boy from an under privileged area of London. He has dreams of becoming a Drill artist and practices amateurly at any given opportunity. Michael is a low standing member of a gang which he sees as a way to begin making drill music, this being the form of communication used by rival gangs to communicate. He finds himself challenged when he is asked to commit a violent crime in order to be fully initiated into the gang with the reward being an opportunity to record music. Michael realises he has to make a choice for the first time in his life, he must decide whether to do the right thing.
Directer Jo Morris comments on the film:
"I chose to make this film having spent a long-time researching gangs and child exploitation within them in the UK. Drill music and videos are used by rival gangs to communicate with each other often recording a tally of violent stabbings via a scoreboard. There have been cases where songs have been used in court as evidence and also of artist's work being banned from YouTube. This sparked the debate "Does drill music cause crime or offer an escape from it?" I believe it can be both and therefore it was important for me to show both sides of drill music the dark side and the creative talent and workmanship many drill artists possess.
Because of my interest in drill music, I have followed many artist's careers and marvelled at how some can release a track without even a music video that could then potentially hit one million streams in a matter of days on streaming sites. Therefore, showing the demand for drill music which we see as it becomes more mainstream. I wanted to explore the music within the story without ignoring its links to gangs that have continued to be evident in my research on county lines and UK gangs. This coming-of-age drama with a standout performance by Josiah looks at what it means to be a man in London drill youth culture and is really about our moral compass and doing the right thing."
