Film about the 96 needs your support
A Liverpool-born director is looking to raise funds for a short film which tells the story of the Hillsborough disaster.
Mike Forshaw is aiming to raise £24,000 to produce 'Saturday', a fictionalised account of the tragic events which occurred on April 15, 1989.
The story is told through the eyes of a young boy watching events unfold on the television news on Merseyside.
Writer and director Mike, from Waterloo, has based the film partly on his own memories of the day of the disaster.
Now he needs your support to reach a target of £24,000 before Saturday, September 8. To pledge your support now, visit Mike's page on Kickstarter website by clicking here.
"I was only a child when it happened, so at first it didn't hit home exactly what had happened. I was too young to understand," said Mike.
"The idea is loosely based on my experience of coming home after playing football and just seeing a young man in our house, crying and being consoled by my dad.
"It turned out he was one of my cousins who I hadn't met, who had a friend at the game. It was a memory that stayed with me."
The film will tell the story of eight-year-old Liam, whose older brother Mark is at the match.
Mike said: "I realised there were 24,000 families of Liverpool fans who were waiting for news once they heard what was going on. It had such a huge impact across the region and further afield.
"This was before mobile phones, so people were just watching the news and not knowing what they could do."
Mike, who now lives in London, has consulted with families and campaigners and he has the backing of the Hillsborough Family Support Group and the Hillsborough Justice Campaign.
He added: "I had been thinking about the idea before the Hillsborough Independent Panel report, but after it was published I was thinking about how many people were still not engaging with what had happened.
"There are lots of documentaries and factual accounts but not as many which are fictionalised.
"I hope using this method will help encourage people to go back and look at the facts and I thought the best way to do that was to humanise it through the story of a young boy like myself."
Saturday was recently selected to take part in the prestigious Nisi Masa European Script Pitch 2013 competition and was awarded one of the contest's top three prizes.
It is hoped the film will begin shooting in various locations around Waterloo and south Sefton in October. The funding drive for the project runs until Sunday, September 8 - to show your support, click here.