Maxwell Whitelock

Funerals can be true male environments where men want to cry but refuse to while their past rides up to hit them. Eddie Holgate is caught in this exact situation. His father has built him up all his life to be tough in an attempt to trickle down his masculinity. But as a tumultuous and charged service at his team's football pitch sparks unwanted memories, Eddie is forced to examine the man he idolized his father to be against the husband and caregiver he very much was not. With the help of his older brother, Joe, Eddie manages to unpick years of emotional neglect and abuse, and finally, allows himself to cry.

Inspired by true events in 1994, Father'sDaze exposes the additional pressures exerted by the Child Support Agency on one family dealing with the consequences of marital breakdown. Ben, a freelance wedding photographer, suddenly finds himself a single parent of three young boys. After adapting to his new situation, Ben finds himself an innocent victim of the system and struggles through a roller coaster of emotions as he fights for his rights against an irrational, faceless organization, desperately trying to provide a home for his children against all the odds. Following enormous public protests, the Child Support Agency was axed in 1996 and replaced with a revised system, which is still controversial today.