Year: 2025
Director: Kim Hopkins
Producer: Margareta Szabo
Co-Producer: Nan Davies
Executive Producers: Nikki Parrott, Luke W. Moody, Mark Thomas, Dani Carlaw, Kiah Simpson, Kim Warner, Caroline Cooper Charles and Herbert Lockwood
Production Companies: Labor of Love Films in association with Tigerlily Two and One Wave Films
Screen Scotland support: The film accessed funding through Screen Scotland’s Film Development and Production Fund
Synopsis
What happens when you’ve created the worst song ever – at least according to music journalists? What comes after fleeting fame, and what does it mean to grow old still chasing a dream?
Former pop star Dene clings to the remnants of fame, performing for a dwindling, ageing audience in some of the UK’s most deprived areas. By his side is his biggest fan: his spirited 89-year-old mum.
The film asks profound questions about happiness, survival, and the indifference of a country leaving many behind, while offering an ode to those who persevere through adversity. When Black Lace hit Top of the Pops in the ’80s, a glib DJ quipped, “Don’t you always wonder who’s in that fruit?” – referring to the giant dancing fruit backing singers. Did Dene have nightmares about turning into a giant pineapple? Had the fruit that fed him also devoured him?
Across a four decade long career in an industry that forced him to smile and sing “push pineapple, shake the tree” 45,000 times, Dene – though now a pineapple – never lost his humanity, kindness or hope. Still Pushing Pineapples explores his resilience and the spirit of ordinary working class people amid a crumbling industrial order.
But who needs an ’80s throwback in a pineapple shirt and oversized red specs, singing a tired pop song? Apparently, many do. Agadoo doo doo.
More information
Premiere: Still Pushing Pineapples will open the 2025 Sheffield DocFest on Wednesday 18 June 2025.
Image credits: Image courtesy of Labor of Love Films