When you first hear a new band, it’s hard not to place them in a mental box neatly labeled and socked away in whatever ward of your memory is reserved for that genre. One listen to Heavy Load, a UK-based punk outfit uniquely made up of musicians with and without learning disabilities, however, will have your mind spinning and searching for the band’s place.
The band members describe themselves as being subject to the combustible flux of ego, ambition, fantasy, expectation, and desire that fuels any emerging band. With influences ranging from George Michael to The Cramps, Heavy Load has spread its combination of raucous energy, attitude, and sheer volume throughout the world for 12 years. Now the band is about to hit the big time: the feature-length documentary, Heavy Load: A Film about Happiness, about their journey from social care to stardom, and back again. The film debuted at SXSW (South by South West) film festival this year and was received with critical acclaim.
Director Jerry Rothwell contacted Heavy Load to make the film after reading about them in a newsletter for people with learning disabilities. Shot over two years as the band records its first album, "The Queen Mother’s Dead," the film takes viewers along as Heavy Load expands its reach from disability club nights to more mainstream gigs—and sells out venues along the way.
The band was relatively unknown when Rothwell first began filming them. According to The Austin Chronicle, Rothwell, in the midst of a struggle with his own depression, embraced the band’s potential as “a group that existed outside the mainstream commercial music world and that, in the true punk spirit, was making music ‘for fun, not fame’ and happily destroying expectations in the process.”
During the filming of the movie, the band conceived and launched the now-nationally renowned “Stay Up Late” campaign. Viewers watch as members of Heavy Load work to liberate disabled adults from a curfew system that prevents them from fully defining their own fates, careers, and lives.
And they do it while sticking to the true punk code based on an aversion to conformity, the desire to speak loudly about what they believe in, and to lobby for those who can’t do it for themselves, even in the face of authority. Rothwell’s own adherence to a similar code comes through in the film. Without embracing the sentimental or super-crip ideals evident in so many documentaries about disability, Rothwell dismisses the idea that the film is even about triumph over tragedy. “It’s about the joys of being in a rock band. Filming these guys, I realized they had something that is missing from so many people's lives: happiness,” Rothwell says.
Michael White, one of three Heavy Load members who has a learning disability, said, “Being in the film has made us more relaxed. We hope it'll make us famous.”
Heavy Load, presented by APT Films, Met Film and Hi8us, is an IFC co-production with ITVS International in association with BBC Television.
Read more:To read more about documentaries based on disabilties, see Reviewing an Intimate Documentary About the True Face of War.
To read more about musicians with disabilities, see: - Discovering Clon: Dancing K-Pop Stars Integrate Wheelchairs with Their Moves
- Tobias Forrest: Singer with Disability Sees Acceptance on Stage as Band "Cityzen" Gains Attention
- Keith Jones: Conquering the Music Industry with Cerebral Palsy
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