Life through a lens - Ex-gang member establishes himself as rising filmmaker
manchestereveningnews.co.ukGrowing up in a deprived area of Manchester, Neville Thompson never pictured himself rubbing shoulders with BBC directors and film crews at glittering award ceremonies.
But the 47-year-old has come a long way since his teenage years, which were spent in and out of prison for drug dealing. “I was always dead popular, I never caused any problems,” he recalls of his childhood, which was spent living with his grandparents in Rusholme. “But as I got older, this one person kept bullying me.
I didn’t have anywhere to turn. My dad was a drug addict, so he was no help, and my grandad was too old to ask. Neville then got involved with gang members at school. “They took me under their wing and my beef became their beef,” he explains. “But it worked the other way too, and their enemies became my enemies.
I was only 16 and had taken on way more than I realised. I never expected to get involved in all that.” Before long, Neville was selling drugs and constantly in and out of prison.
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