Yorkshire Indie Takes on Hollywood

North Yorkshire, UK. Thursday August 16th 2018

After receiving 170,000 views on YouTube, Lad: A Yorkshire Story becomes the only British self-distributed feature film to rank in the IMDB top 100 films of all time, joining the likes of The Godfather and Braveheart.

Lad tells the story of a teenage boy who comes to terms with the loss of his father when he forms a friendship with a park ranger in the Yorkshire Dales.

The film was cast with members of the Yorkshire Dales community in which writer/director Hartley grew up and was shot on a miniscule budget funded from savings.

After being turned down by every UK distributor the production team took matters into their own hands, touring the film around the fourteen national parks and hosting dozens of community screenings across the UK.

With more films being made than ever before and marketing budgets edging out all but the slickest Hollywood productions, LAD represents a possible turning point in self-distribution.

Writer/Director Hartley states ‘What is remarkable is that Lad is now rubbing shoulders with films that have been made for hundreds of millions of dollars with marketing budgets to match, yet audiences are choosing to watch a small indie film from the UK featuring first-time actors.’

The team have now taken the unusual step of giving the film away for free and asking only that viewers continue to contribute to their rating on IMDB.

As Hartley states ‘IMDB has a massive impact on the types of films that Hollywood produces and distributes and ratings send a clear signal that audiences want more than just superhero films and franchises.’

Hartley is aiming for 25,000 reviews which is the minimum necessary to be recognized by IMDB in their annual charts.

‘It’s an ambitious target for a small film but everything about Lad has been geared towards its community spirit and we’re hoping that we can develop that on the world stage and bring awareness to a film that has always strived to punch far above its weight.’

Lad is available to view on http://www.ladayorkshirestory.com

Editors Note:

IMDB is the #1 movie website in the world with a combined web and mobile audience of more than 250 million unique monthly visitors.

Lad is rated 8.4 on IMDB. The highest is Shawshank Redemption with 9.3

Press photo available on the following link:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ej1dxom0sq8d5cb/AAD56MCKCFqRvuyp_UQAHTXoa?dl=0