Triple bill

Three films for you this week, amazingly, and they are all at the smaller, independent end of the spectrum because I’ve had my fill of mainstream blockbusters, at least for the minute, and probably know all I will ever need to know about evil villains who wish to take over the world. (Just take it and go, why don’t you? Here, borrow my Oyster card.) I’ll start with Sound It Out, which happens to be my favourite, and is at the very, very opposite end of the spectrum, having been made by a crew of one with a budget of around $0 million and, I suspect, no catering beyond the occasional Greggs meal deal. (Actually, I love a Greggs meal deal, but I think you get what I’m saying.)

This is a documentary about the last surviving record store on Teesside, made by the young documentarist Jeanie Finlay, who filmed for a year in the shop without funding and financed this theatrical release via crowd-sourcing — a bit here, a bit there, from individual supporters — and it is lovely; full of heart, affection and thoughtfulness. The shop is owned and run by Tom, who loves his vinyl, can identify a track by a half-remembered hum, and is devoted to his customers, as they are devoted to him. There doesn’t seem much on offer for the residents of Stockton-on-Tees, a deprived area of high unemployment with a forlorn, deserted high street, and this shop is a place of belonging and mutual respect.

Some of these customers are followed home. Mostly, they are those music-collecting fanatics who tend to live in bare, half-painted rooms populated by a single chair, a record player, and stacks and stacks of albums (alphabetised).