Homeless Sheffield man features in new documentary series

Sheffield based production company called Blinkvivid has launched a new series called ‘One day with’. The company pride themselves on having a passion for documenting social issues and shining a light on topics that require more of a public focus.

The directors of Blinkvivid – Aidan Joseph, Joe Gist and William Wade – were all inspired to continue documenting pieces around social issues following the success of their first documentary called Limits of Freedom, in Kathmandu, Nepal.

The first episode of the new series tells the story of a homeless man, Nathaniel Byron Ellis, from Pitsmoor, who spends his life sitting outside Sainsbury’s on Ecclesall Road. Nathaniel has not lost his aspirations of becoming an MC and can often be found passionately scribbling lyrics in a notepad.

Technical director, Aidan Joseph, said: “Following the success of the first documentary, we wanted to continue covering stories of the same nature.

“Upon thinking in relation to that, we’d gone so far across the world to cover that first story, why not cover something much closer to home? As it happens, that’s when I first saw Nathaniel sitting outside Sainsbury’s about 30 seconds from my front door.

“I decided to speak to him and find out what his story was, his response was amazing. Sadly, he lost his job in December and he has been reduced to living on the streets since then, but he has remained determined enough to keep pursuing his dreams of becoming an MC.

“That’s when I got the idea to do a music video for him if he agreed to tell us his story for the documentary. This story inspired the beginning of our series launch called ‘One day with’.

Creative director, Joe Gist said: “It was originally my idea to turn it into a series and it just goes to show how many incredible people we can potentially reach. I would therefore like to take the opportunity to encourage people to get in touch with us if they know of a good story.”