The 14th Annual Prescott Film Festival is welcoming award-winning filmmaker, Todd Thompson, with a “sneak peek” of his much-anticipated, feature-length documentary film, PRE FAB!. Based on the book of the same name by musician Colin Hanton and co-author Colin Hall — custodian of John Lennon’s childhood home — PRE FAB! is considered to be the last Beatles story about how it all began.
The film chronicles the story of how one man — English-born drummer Hanton — joined John Lennon and rounded up their friends in 1950s Liverpool to form The Quarrymen, a group that would evolve in just a few years into the biggest and most influential band in music history – The Beatles.
PRE FAB! takes viewers back to the early days where it all began. Hanton serves as a jovial tour guide through this history-in-the-making narrative about the rise of “Skiffle” music (an acoustic blend of folk, blues, and jazz) and its impact — along with American rock ‘n’ roll — on post-World War II British youth. The film skillfully combines archival footage and music of the period, along with interviews with the surviving Quarrymen, family, friends, Liverpool residents and many others.
In 2022, while work on PRE FAB! was still in post-production, Thompson gave Orlando audiences a look at a rough-cut version of the film during two sold-out screenings at the Florida Film Festival. It was the second time Thompson and his team broke Florida Film Festival records, selling out multiple theaters for an opening night film — the first being in 2019 when screening his documentary Woman In Motion which now streams on Paramount+.
“PRE FAB’s official selection as the closing night film at this year’s Prescott Film Festival is a great honor for me” says director Todd Thompson. “The film has not yet been released, so it is a thrill to be able to share this fun and largely unknown story with movie and music fans.”
Mark Bentley, a Tampa-based attorney who is also the executive producer of the film, noted, “Peter Jackson’s Get Back was the epic and surprising conclusion to the Beatles story; PRE FAB! shows us the origins of the Fab Four before they were ‘fab.’ It is my hope that viewers leave the theater with both a clearer understanding of how The Beatles evolved, as well as a sweet reminder that life may sometimes seem unfair, but eventually works out just the way it’s supposed to.”
PRE FAB! is being hosted by Yavapai College Film & Media Arts and will screen at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 20 at the Jim & Linda Lee Performing Arts Center, located at 110 East Sheldon Street in Prescott, AZ. The film is in competition and eligible for an Audience Choice, Director’s Choice and Jury awards, and the event will include an evening of Skiffle music and a Q&A with director, Todd Thompson. Tickets can be purchased at ycpac.com and more information can be found at prescottfilmfestival.com.
