Parity Pictures is a social enterprise bringing together TV and film commissioners with creative talent in the North West. We talked to Dominique Unsworth MBE, a producer for more than 20 years, about her bid to make Bolton the Hollywood of the North.

Dominique explained it is all about connecting commissioners to content, uniting untold stories with untapped audiences.

She set up Resource Productions, a Community Interest Company in Slough in 1999 with mission to enable social change in film and art and to diversify the creative industries.

Dominique said: “We work with lots of artists and filmmakers from underrepresented backgrounds by doing outreach and engagement, development and training and then produce their short films. But in order to properly diversify the industries, people needed to get TV shows or film scripts commissioned or developed and Resource Productions didn’t really have the capacity or the focus to do that under our vision, mission and values.

“Parity Pictures was set up a year ago through Creative England, now Creative UK, around the idea of what happens next nationally and also looking in areas that are similar to Slough, that might benefit from some of the work that we’ve done in the South East.”

As Dominique had a connection to the Greater Manchester/Lancashire area through her husband’s family, it seemed obvious to base the new social enterprise in Bolton.

“It has lots of parallels to Slough in terms of demographics, cultural diversity, its proximity to a big city and the opportunity for exploring creativity and particularly film locations and development.

“The big incentive for me was Adrian Barber, founder and festival director of one of the best film festivals in the UK, Bolton International Film Festival – a bit of a hidden gem. It is an internationally-recognised BAFTA-accredited film festival based in the town centre, every October.

“Parity Pictures began alongside the development of our first feature film Little English, a British Punjabi romantic comedy, set in Slough. During the pandemic, we managed to raise funds from UnLtd – The Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and the Rothschild Foundation to make a film that would give people from underrepresented backgrounds or those who didn’t have appropriate credits their first feature film credit. So, we picked the script from a theatre play by Pravesh Kumar based on our funding, parameters, and the artists we were working with. One of our first screenings was at the Light cinema in Bolton. It was really well attended with support from Adrian, the festival, Bolton CVS & Bolton FM.

“We are developing a slate of other projects, looking at feature films and TV series that could be shot locally, made locally in the Greater Manchester area, particularly Bolton and Lancashire, and either by writers from other areas that could locate to that area to generate jobs and opportunities for local people or from local writers and directors that we’ve met through BFI Film Hub North or local connections with writing groups and individual producers.

“We attend the Bolton Film Festival to meet emerging writers and directors and to say, are you aware of the opportunities locally? Can we support you with your projects and develop them?

“We’ve met some incredible filmmakers and also work with the existing bank of people, so we’ve got around a couple of hundred projects that come through the Resource Productions pipeline that then get funnelled into Parity Pictures for consideration for support.”

Dominique and her co-producers Andrew St Maur and Lesley-Anne Macfarlane tour film and tv markets, pitching projects to top industry figures.

“A couple of our writers and directors are already award-winning. Their projects haven’t been picked up yet because it’s a really, really big challenge for a new independent production company. But we get people to look at their work and spread awareness of what they’re writing about. We are working with the six projects and filmmakers from underrepresented groups within the industry identified through Resource Productions to try and get them into production or connected with mentors.

For Bolton by Bolton

“Historically, Bolton has been well used as a location,” Dominique said. “The council has done a really good job of getting people to come and film but there’s a disconnect between the local community understanding how they might get to work on those productions.”

Red Rose, the hit show from homegrown writer/directors the Clarkson Twins, award-winning comedy Alma’s Not Normal and surprisingly The Full Monty – both the film and new Disney tv series – are among many productions shot in Bolton over the years.

“There’s a real heritage associated with seeing places like Bolton on screen. You get the traditional houses that may not be everywhere in the country anymore. It has an historic town centre but with buildings for different faiths. It is a good backdrop representing a lot of the UK.

“But we want to dig a bit deeper and say, ‘It’s great that it has these locations, but how does that connect with the people that live there now, how can they represent people across the country living in communities that aren’t London, that aren’t Manchester, that aren’t Birmingham?

“One of the big things that that we don’t see represented on film and TV is the complexity of the diversity of different communities: be that the local white working class community or British South Asian.

“We are based at the Bolton Council for Voluntary Services, and we are mentoring our BCVS neighbour Bolton Deaf Society to explore how their specialism in subtitling and signing could be a commercial opportunity in film for them and how some of our contacts could benefit from this specialism, which is a post-production and access need within the film community.

“Local graduates with no connection to the industry approach us looking for pathways in, so we’ll have a one-to-one with them and try to connect them into the local activities we’ve had. We try to and join the dots, which is sometimes easier when you’re coming into an area from the outside.

“Our ambition for the next year is to raise the funds to have a more consistent presence locally by hiring someone at least a part-time, and to try and get at least one of our projects commissioned. We know it can take one to three years to get a commission from any broadcasters. For them to take a risk for us to move into long form is a big, big deal.”

Parity Pictures are also looking to help their protégés diversify in these uncertain times post-Covid when streamers are pulling in their horns and the actors and writers strikes have paralysed the industry.

“That’s impacted on jobs in our industry for British technicians across people. So we’re spending a lot of time trying to find people alternative work while there’s a quiet period at the moment, looking at how you can diversify. If you are a writer, what else can you do? If you are a camera operator, what else can you do? Making sure we keep them engaged in the industry because if there’s a boom again in October, which is what we predict, we’ll need them all back again.”

One of the ambitions of Parity Pictures is to eventually have people they work with as staff on PAYE to remove the typical economic uncertainty that can be a barrier to people entering the industry.

Parity Pictures itself has been supported by a financial mentor from Creative England and funding from UnLtd the social entrepreneurship foundation that supports not for profits and social enterprises.

Dominique would be delighted to connect with interested parties at networking events during Bolton International Film Festival (4-8 October 2023) or contact her on info@paritypictures.co.uk