AN amateur filmmaker from Warrington has won an international film award for his latest motion picture.

Justin Walker, from Burtonwood, dreamed of creating movies since he was a child, but life took him in another direction.

The 43-year-old has worked as a support worker for the NHS for nearly a decade – a job he is extremely passionate about – but during the pandemic he revisited his love of film making and has made several short films since.

A theme that continues in many of his films, Justin incorporates his experiences of working in the mental health services in the plots of each film and aims to raise awareness through his creative work.

His latest short, Auditory, is a silent movie which features one character ‘girl’ played by his daughter Islien Walker. It centres around a young girl who is experiencing hearing voices for the first time.

The small film, shot and edited on a smart phone, has since received praise from several independent film festivals, before winning Best Experimental Film at the WildSound film festival in the US.

Auditory was shot at Dunham MasseyAuditory was shot at Dunham Massey (Image: Supplied)

Speaking on what led to creating Auditory, producer Justin said: “I work within the mental health services and have done for nine years. I have just recently joined the early intervention team in the NHS and previously worked at a crisis team.

“Joining with the early intervention team, I am working with individuals with early psychosis, some of them hear voices.”

The dad-of-two explained the plot of the film being focused on a young teenage girl who is preparing for her exams.

“She is stressed and gets a stress induced psychosis. She starts hearing voices,” he said.

“I have worked with relatively young people, and I think stress in life does cause stress induced psychosis. I want to raise awareness about this.”

Justin shot the film during a day out with his 12-year-old daughter Islien at Dunham Massey.

“One day we went to Dunham Massey, and we shot the whole film without a script.

“Islien attends performing arts group PQA Warrington and does a lot of acting and takes directions very well. It was very ad hoc.”

Despite having had no training in how to shoot or edit a film, Justin admitted that he is a self-confessed ‘film geek’ and has spent hours researching filmmaking.

“Everything is done on my Iphone and I use a basic editing app to put everything together. I am the epitome of an amateur film maker.”

Recalling where his first love of film came from, Justin detailed how as a young boy from the age of six he loved films.

He finished school with no qualifications and before leaving he recounted the time he was sent to see a careers advisor.

After expressing his dreams to become a filmmaker he was told it was an unachievable dream and that he should chose a more realistic route.

“I came home so disheartened and told my parents what had happened. The next week they came home with a video camera for me and told me to make my dreams come true.”

“Life took me on another path, and I love working as a support worker. Filmmaking is very therapeutic to me, I love writing and composing.”

Last year, in 2023, the support worker filmed another short titled Only Human. This, he said, highlighted the stigmas of mental health professionals and the struggles they go through from what they see and experience every working day.

“We had a person who worked in our trust, a nurse, who took her own life. We are not robots; it is does affect us and is traumatic. People who you work with have had awful lives and you do take that home with you,” he added.

Only Human was nominated for Best Short Film on an iPhone by one film festival.

The film, along with Auditory and another of Justin’s short flicks, Remain in the Light, have been selected to be screened at UCLAN’s One in Four film festival.

If you want to watch Justin's latest award winning film Auditory, you can view it here youtu.be/J6RW5_YKCI4?si=P9N-_i11EvM-Vx4M