It was a documentary expected to be made in three months. Dalton’s Dream (a world premiere at Sheffield Doc Fest on June 15) ended taking over four years. When effervescent young pansexual Jamaican singer Dalton Harris won UK TV talent show The X-Factor in 2018, directors Kim Longinotto and Franky Murray Brown planned to film him as he launched his career in earnest as a recording artist.
Longinotto (the acclaimed director of such feature docs as Sisters In Law and Rough Aunties) had been put in touch with Murray Brown by producer Julia Nottingham who runs Dorothy Street Pictures. “Kim and I met and just really hit it off,” Murray Brown remembers. “A week later, we flew to Jamaica together.”
Early on, they were in the West Indies to film Dalton’s homecoming. He was due to perform at a festival. However, instead of basking in his achievement in winning one of the world’s most prestigious talent shows, some locals maligned him, posting homophobic messages online ridiculing him as a “batty boy.”
“The context we give in the film is really important, about British colonisation and the origin of those laws which made homosexual relations essentially…it was the Brits who brought over those laws and put them in place. They’re colloquially known as the ‘buggery laws,’” the co-director explains why such prejudice persists in Jamaica.
The taunting forced Dalton to look inward. “I think initially all of us had thought it would be a film about Dalton’s career post X-Factor, trying to navigate the music and entertainment industry, moving from Jamaica to London and that sort of thing,” Murray Brown notes. It quickly became apparent, though, that this wasn’t going to be a bright and breezy account of a young pop star hitting the big time. Instead, the documentary deals with the turmoil its subject was going through as he looked for love and acceptance.
Early on, the singer wasn’t public about his sexuality. “We were absolutely led by Dalton,” Murray Brown says of how he and Longinotto took their cue from their protagonist. “He didn’t want to finish the film until he was in a place where he was happy to be public about his sexuality. That was really important for him. And he wanted the film to be a testament to that journey. That was a big factor in why the film took the time that it did.”
Dalton himself recently posted on Instagram that he “never thought it [the documentary] would show so many raw moments of my life and journey. I watched the film with my team the other day and I needed a week to kinda resettle my emotions after. This week has been a very hard week for me as well.”
Dalton had made it clear to the filmmakers that he wanted the film to reach other youngsters confronted with similar challenges regarding sexuality and identity to those he had faced when growing up. “He thought that when he was a kid, if he could have watched something like this, it would have really helped him. It’s really important for him that we have as big a community and educational outreach as possible.”
Murray Brown credits Longinotto with teaching him that you don’t need to film everything. The directors spent a lot of time with Dalton talking about what form the film should take.
There is a poignant moment early on in the documentary in which Dalton, on his return to Jamaica, drives past his mother without stopping. He endured a brutal childhood and didn’t want to rake over traumatic memories of hunger and sleeping rough. “As he talks about in the beginning of the film, he didn’t have a relationship with his mum. Really, we were led by him. When he started to build that relationship back with her [his mother] we tried to integrate elements of that process.”
Murray Brown pays tribute to producer Lorine Plagnol for her work in securing permission for the documentary to include footage from the X-Factor shows on which Dalton emerged as a star. “She did an amazing job In getting to a place where we could use it – and afford it as well.”
There was no division of responsibility between the co-directors. “It was all together. For two years of the film, it was just us,” Murray Brown says of how he worked with Longinotto. “Practically, on a technical level, Kim would do the camera and I would do the sound. But everything, all the decisions, we took together. Kim and I have become really close friends.”
Both welcomed Dalton’s contribution. He wasn’t just the subject of the film but was heavily involved in how it was shaped.
After his X-Factor success, Dalton anticipated singing on huge stages around the world and recording hit singles and albums. That is not exactly how it turned out. His record deal ended. He “parted ways” with his management. Nonetheless, the documentary ends on an upbeat note. Dalton is shown ironing his shirt before going on stage to give a showstopping performance at a charity gig. “He is able to be himself. He talks about all the amazing things that means, that he feels lighter in himself, that he can say what he wants.”
Dalton’s Dream, which had support from BBC Storyville and the BFI Global Screen Fund among others, is due to be broadcast early next year. It is expected to play more festivals and potentially to be given a theatrical release before then. Dogwoof is handling international sales. Paul Struthers is helping with the impact campaign around the film.
