Short film looks at Hope for Hillsborough campaign

by Hugh O'Connell. Published Mon 05 Apr 2010 10:44

A new short film looks at how the loss of a young boy at Hillsborough brought his grieving mother and a survivor together in their fight for justice in the aftermath of the disaster.

Anne Williams has been campaigning for justice for her son Kevin who was 15 when he and 95 other Liverpool supporters lost their lives in the Hillsborough stadium disaster on 15 April 1989.

Survivor John Herbert attempted to save Kevin in the crush at the Leppings Lane end of the ground and is still haunted by the memories of that fateful day.

The short film, produced by media students at Liverpool John Moores University, looks at how the lives of these two people have been affected over the past 21 years and the Hope for Hillsborough campaign, led by Anne Williams.

Williams wants to open a new inquest into the death of her son who she says was alive well beyond the 3.15pm cut off point imposed by the coroner during the initial inquest into the disaster.

The release of the film comes just a few weeks before the 21st anniversary of the disaster which will be marked, as it is annually, by a memorial service at Anfield.

Last year's memorial service received widespread media attention after then Secretary of Culture, Media and Sport Andy Burnham was heckled from the crowd who shouted "Justice for the 96".

The protest led to the setting up of an independent panel to examine around 45,000 archived documents relating to the disaster but some bereaved families and survivors have criticised the limited scope of the panel.