Milestones
Release: 2010
Status: Pre-production
Director: Derek Lister
Script: Derek Lister
Genre: Drama
Alesha’s Character: Selena
Cast: Brian Fox (X-Men), Alex Kingston (ER)
Plot: Jermaine Jones, a 20-year-old black kid, lives on a south London estate and has a prodigious musical ability, but doesn’t know it. Al Danzig used to be one of the best jazz players around. Then he threw it all away on a drug habit that turned into an unpaid tab his dealer settled with a sledgehammer – on his fingers. He never played again. That was 20 years ago. Now Al runs a local London jazz club with his partner, Corinne. On a weekly guest spot Al lets unknown talent have the stage for one night. A group of young black kids with half digested mish-mash of the latest urban black vibes plays on the spot – but they makes Al wince. He does notice the sax player… Jermaine, who plays alto sax for the band. He’s mesmerizing, sailing regally through this junk repertoire. Intrigued, Al checks him out. The kid doesn’t know any of the usual standards, doesn’t care and can’t even read music very well; he’s as ghettoized and underprivileged musically as he is on the rundown estate where he lives. But anything Al picks out for him on the piano he can toss into the air, turn inside out and put back in a different order. A complete natural, a mirror image of a younger Al. He takes Jermaine under his wing and teaches him everything he knows. How anyone can just blow but people who leave a mark, are those who have the ability to stamp everything with their individuality. and give the world something it has never heard before. But it’s a gift that has to be nurtured or it can just as easily destroy – as Al knows only too well. Their relationship – youth vs age, black vs white – is stormy but under Al’s tutelage Jermaine blossoms. Al introduces this new talent to the circuit gradually, protecting Jermaine from the excesses that sent his own career off the rails before. Gradually word gets round, a reputation grows. Jermaine becomes hot property. Starts to see beyond the limitations of his background. He tries to kick free but those ties are stronger, more complicated and more violent than either he or Al expected. At the same time, Al resurrects his own spirit. But old, still dangerous skeletons come out of the cupboard and threaten everything they’re about to achieve. Both have to triumph against this adversity, Jermaine getting the career he deserves and Al, redemption. ‘Milestones’ follows in the cinematic tradition of ‘Colour of Money’, ‘Finding Forester’ and ‘Billy Elliot’, pitching a bravura older character against a young tyro. The backdrop to the film is the current London jazz scene, which is young, commercially vibrant, and completely fresh as a cinematic milieu

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