Music video confronts realities of an alcohol-dependent parent

According to Al-Anon, a self-support organisation, for every person with a drinking problem in the UK, five other people on average are affected.

Great Guns director Rollo Hollins addresses this insight in his new promo for Bear’s Den’s track Hiding Bottles, with the film centring on a family grappling with the impact of alcohol abuse.

Drawing inspiration from real case studies, the candid film uses the theme of doubles to explore how alcoholism often leads to fractured realities for its victims and their loved ones. Examples of apparent ‘normal’ family life in home-video footage are juxtaposed with tense scenes of irresponsible parenting and arguments, unnervingly brought to life by great performances from the cast.

Director Rollo Hollins’ in-camera techniques and his casting real-life identical twins made it possible to achieve shots of doubles of each family member living out different versions of their reality side by side in the same frame.

“Andrew Davie [lead singer of Bear’s Den] and I wanted to highlight the often-overlooked issues faced by the victims of alcohol abuse by basing the film on genuine case studies supplied by Al-Anon," says Hollins. "Looking through that research, the theme that kept cropping up was the ‘promise of normality’ that these victims are often teased with. Alcoholism explained as temporary or manageable created a strange dichotomy within those homes; two versions of the same family, one fighting to keep everything ’normal’ and another version, out of control. Using a full cast of identical twins and in-camera effects, I wanted to explore that idea and highlight the issues, whilst keeping the story and dialogue based on real case studies.”