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The film could be categorised in several ways: an ‘issue’ documentary, a home video, a fly-on-the-wall drama, or a student film. But if we are looking to label vicki and jake then I think we could call it, without embarrassment, a punk documentary. It is about life on the margins of society: raw and exposed. The awkward camera movement, bad white balance and jump cuts gel perfectly with the drugs, the shouting and swearing, and the material deprivation depicted. The punk movement was about non-conformity, uncensored emotion, shocking people and perhaps most significantly ‘doing it yourself’.
This is exactly what Ian and Ken did; made during film school using equipment ‘borrowed’ from the faculty, they set about making the film on their own. The formal qualities of the film are dictated by the necessity of a two man crew operating in one of the most underprivileged areas in Britain. Their philosophy became ‘film everything’ and the uncompromising images prove this many times over. But this isn’t sensationalism; it records drug-taking with a matter-of-fact gaze because this was normality. Ian and Ken were welcomed into Vicki’s group of friends and the film demonstrates this privileged access. Whether it’s watching Class-A drug use or joining in Jake’s twelfth birthday party, their dictum ‘film everything’ was followed to the letter.
Make no mistake though, this is no imitation of Nick Broomfield or Michael Moore. It probably has more in common with Ken Loach’s Cathy Come Home (1966). There are no sly asides to the audience, sarcastic commentary or faux-naif interview technique. This is no vanity exercise; vicki and jake is a 101 in how not to make a documentary. Ian and Ken threw themselves into this with the enthusiasm of people who had never made a feature documentary before. It shouldn’t have worked. Except it has.
