Red Herring – Kit Vincent’s award-winning film arrives in selected cinemas and on digital May 3

When Kit Vincent, a young filmmaker, receives a terminal diagnosis aged 24, his first instinct is to turn on his camera and document those closest to him. The result is the award-winning Red Herring.

Kit’s divorced parents are naturally having a hard time grappling with the reality of their son’s illness, and his father, Lawrence, begins a transition of his own – a conversion to Judaism. Following along with his father’s process of grieving for his son’s upended future, Red Herring captures the absurdity of the things we do to find solace in times of inexplicable tragedy. In this personal and touching documentary about a life cut short, Vincent walks the line between humour and grief to helm this love letter to the relationships that keep us going through the dark stages of life.

Directed by Kit Vincent, produced by Edward Owles and with an original soundtrack by Xav Clarke, Red Herring had its UK Premiere at Sheffield Doc Fest before going on to screen at Raindance Film Festival 2023, where it won the ‘Best UK Feature’ Award and the British Independent Film Awards where it was nominated for the ‘Raindance Maverick Award’.

Speaking about Red Herring, Kit said, “When I was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour, I decided that I needed to make a film about what was happening to me. The project began as an instinctive response to the medical implications of my diagnosis but evolved to become an intimate exploration of my family’s relationships.

My parents are separated, and I no longer live in the same town as them, so making the film has been a way to make sense of my identity, my uncertain future and how we all relate to each other. It’s been a cathartic process of self-reckoning for everyone, as the camera became a tool that gave us space to grieve our old lives out in the open.

As a filmmaker living with an invisible disability and a terminal illness, it’s vital for me to express my experience visually in the hope that it will be more widely understood. I suffer daily with seizures, take multiple medications (some with severe side effects) and I support myself financially with government subsidised disability benefits. But I never wanted to make a sad, observational, medical film – I want my personal story to explore these existential questions cinematically and in an uplifting way.

Humour plays such an important part in my life so telling this story in a style that makes people laugh is integral to me as an individual as well as a director. I want audiences to leave this experience feeling lighter because they understand a little more about the unknown and feel that loneliness and fear aren’t at the heart of it. Making this film has given me so much joy and helped my parents find light amongst the darkness. I really hope we can do this for the wider public as well.”

Winner, Best UK Feature – Raindance

Winner, Human Values Award – Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival

Best Of Fest Selection – IDFA

Nominee, Raindance Maverick Award– BIFA