Performance documentary narrated by George the Poet following 20 somethings from one payday to the next in Croydon. All from very different walks of life – a boxer, a stripper, a rich ex-motorbike racer and a homeless aspiring singer.

‘Tying them all together was George the Poet, a cool young bard of urban life whose commentary came in the form of improvised verse, a one-man Greek chorus looking on from the sidelines and chucking in occasional rhyming insights.

But what raised this film out of the ordinary was the quality of the filming and an unflinching approach that got to the heart of each individual, without judgment, and what “payday” meant to them: a means of survival, or a means to a greater end.

Clearly, it wasn’t economic circumstances that defined these twenty-somethings but the demons and ambitions that drove them towards their individual goals. The real accomplishment of Payday, mostly achieved though exceptionally sharp-eyed editing, was to focus on the subtle similarities that linked these four, rather than their obvious
differences.’ – Gerard Odonovan, The Telegraph

Grierson Awards Shortlist
IMDB ★★★★