Carol Anne Morley was born on January 14 1966, she is an English film director, screenwriter and producer. She is best known for her semi-documentary Dreams of a Life, released in 2011, about Joyce Carol Vincent, who died in her North London bedsit in 2003, but was not discovered until 2006. Her older brother is the music journalist, critic and producer Paul Morley. Born in Stockport, Manchester, Morley left school at the age of sixteen to be a singer in various bands. When she was thirteen she was in a band called The Playground, and later she was a part of a band called TOT. Morley's father took his own life when she was eleven and at the age of twelve she started drinking alcohol. After a traumatic experience due to alcohol Morley stopped drinking until she was sixteen. In 1982, the same year Morley left school, the nightclub The Haçienda opened in Manchester. Morley spent a lot of time at the Haçienda until she was 21 and left Manchester. Somewhere in between 1986 and 1987 Morley left Stockport and Manchester to live in London. She decided to attend Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design where she studied Fine Art Film. Morley graduated from Central Saint Martins in 1993 with an honours degree in fine art film and video. She did not return to Manchester for twelve years and when she did it was to make her documentary The Alcohol Years. Morley has written and directed a total of 12 films from 1993 to 2011, ranging in length from 3 minuets to 93 minutes. Morley made two degree films at Central Saint Martins, one of which is called Girl. Shot with 16mm film, this short film uses cross-cutting and devices of the genre melodrama to create a feeling of conflict and crisis. The other degree film was Secondhand Daylight which was set in a fast food restaurant, and in which a group of young people talked about their problems. It too was shot on 16 mm film. I’m Not Here was inspired by the letter Sir Alec Guinness wrote to The Times in which he complained about how little attention customers got in shops. The film concerns boredom and shop assistants. In the short film The Week Elvis Died (15 mins), written and directed by Morley, we see 11-year-old Karen (played by Jennifer Williams) meet Tony Blackburn, played by Blackburn himself. Also shot on 16mm film. During her years at Saint Martins her real debut film, The Alcohol Years, began taking shape. It is a documentary based on her years as a troubled youth (age 16-21) during the early eighties in Manchester, in which she spent a lot of her time in the Hacienda. Five years of her life were lost due to heavy drinking and in the documentary Morley seeks to find out what really happened during this time. It is directed and filmed by Morley and produced by Cairo Cannon, who produces Morley’s films. Together they own the company CAMP, Cannon and Morley Productions.

click here