Here’s Johnny

Synopsis

Here’s Johnny enters the surreal world of famous graphic artist Johnny Hicklenton, who is battling against Multiple Sclerosis. Living in an increasing state of immobility and frustration, Johnny escapes the confines of his front room through his artwork. Through the expression of his brilliant and sometimes troubled imagination we learn about the disease that he cannot escape from.

The documentary follows the last seven years of Johnny’s life since he was diagnosed with MS, a moving expression of his thoughts, feelings and artistic interpretations of key moments whilst fighting the disease. He is funny, philosophical and creative in his exposition. Johnny tries numerous kinds of treatments which are often bizarre and unsolicited, including the use of powder used to help the muscle tone of competition horses, electronic pads which create harsh spasms in his muscles, and Svengolin, which is the liquid form of the myelin sheath of a cow. Here’s Johnny presents Multiple Sclerosis through the eyes, words and images of one of the most inspiring artists of his generation. He is an incredible man, and despite his ever-worsening disability is now drawing for Judge Dredd, to be launched for Dredd’s 30th anniversary. For Johnny, to draw is to live. Here’s Johnny documents this amazing man’s journey.

About the director

Animal Monday was set up by Kat Mansoor, Will Hood and Adam Lavis.  Kat’s role includes the direction and production of documentaries, development of business ideas, fundraising for new projects and production of new media. Kat loves to travel with her work and has made films in Pakistan, Switzerland, India, Israel and Brazil. 

Will has been making music for as long as he can remember, he has been involved in everything from BBC 1 soundtracks to Stilt walking Jazz bands. A composer and producer of many different styles, Will handles everything ‘audio’ for Animal Monday. Adam Lavis is mainly an editor and has a hand in all things ‘visual’ for Animal Monday. This means spending many hours in a darkened room, splicing together pieces of digital film into something wonderful.

Previous films:

Retrograde
Timepiece
The Eunuchs of Lahore

According to the filmmakers

“Adam met Johnny in 1996 and became good friends. At this time Johnny was a prolific comic book artist with an uncompromising reputation. Johnny was diagnosed with MS in June 2001, and he was understandably devastated.  It was the strength of his character and resilience when faced with such traumatic news which inspired Animal Monday (a new company put together by a bunch a friends) to delve into Johnny’s world. He seemed to give a fresh perspective on the idea of illness, his sense of humour, always wicked and reflective. He wanted to be the man that defied the medical world, and when we started filming we believed that is what the film would be.

As one year of filming turned into several we soon realised that Johnny was not going to escape MS and he was going to become disabled by the illness.  This changed the tone of our film and our scope became broader - we wanted to explore how Johnny coped - mentally and emotionally - with the profound physical changes he was going through. In this sense the film became what it is today, an uncompromisingly honest exploration of disability and how it affects every aspect of a person’s life.”

Distribution Deals

• TV
  • Israel, DSB
  • Poland, Canal +
• DVD
  • Australia, VEA (educational video)