A FILM student from Pitsea has made a no-holds barred autobiographical feature film about the impact his parents splitting up had on him and his brother.

Reece Hughes, 23, made his film, P*sseye, as his final year project as part of his degree in film studies and production at Essex University.

Mr Hughes describes the year-long process of making the film as “cathartic”.

He said: “My film is about how I felt stuck between my parents, but feeling an allegiance to my dad.

“But what I’ve realised in making the film is that life is hard, especially raising kids and being economically disadvantaged.

“Although it started as a futile and angry attempt to make my parents realise something, what’s come out of it is a decent film.”

Mr Hughes signed up his 14year-old brother, Louie, to play the main character of a boy going through what he himself went through at that age.

He said: “He’s lived through these things, and there were moments on set when Louis was overwhelmed reliving these horrible jarring moments.

“There were also times when he didn’t want to act outside because his friends might see him.

“I wanted to show him that being an actor isn’t nerdy – that you can do what you want in life.”

Reece relied on friends and family to fill the roles.

Before Essex University he attended Eversley Primary School before going to Chalvedon School and the Basildon Academies.

It was filmed as a docu-drama.

The name of the film was chosen from a variance of Pitsea used in past times.

Mr Hughes said: “Working with people I know made it easier to avoid any awkwardness.

“Everyone on the film resonated with the depictions of domestic violence.

“One minute you can be having a punch up, and the next its history.”

At so many points, Mr Hughes says he thought about quitting the project.

“I asked myself, am I being a brat?” he added.

“I had moral dilemmas.

“You are full of anger and want to destroy things when you’re 14, and feel like no one understands you.

“It’s very hard for kids with less supportive families.

“But making the film was therapeutic, and now, I’ve drawn a line in the sand over those years.”

Mr Hughes hopes to screen his film at his former secondary school, Basildon Academies this September, and in doing so, to inspire children that there’s more to life than gangs.

He added: “These kids are being heavily influenced now by gangs from London.

He said: “In Pitsea its like there’s a leader crime board of what you have done.

“It’s all about how you prove that you’re a geezer. Everyone’s got knives now, it’s scary. My brother is already mixed up in it, which is a shame. But he is a smart 14-year-old boy.”