The denial of freedom, the power in word reclamation, knowledge in retrospect, the complexities of returning home, ancestry and morality, endangered spaces, reflections on death and separation and chance encounters that change trajectories bring this selection of British films into vibrant focus.
SEALSKIN (UK)
Dir/Wri: Daisy Leigh-Phippard, Prod: Anna Venuto, Lara Karam
United Kingdom, 2019, 13 min 41 sec, Cert 12A
When Tara is denied her freedom and finds a sealskin, she must decide whether to use it to escape, or return it.
TO MY YOUNGER SELF
Dir/Wri: Owain Astles, Prod: Owain Astles, Rob Mitchell
United Kingdom, 2020, 3 min 46 sec, Cert 15
A man impacted by the trauma of incarceration as a youth gives his younger self advice on how to protect his spirit.
BETH
Dir/Wri:Ava Bounds, Prod: Bryan Bounds
United Kingdom, 2020, 12 min 26 sec, Cert 15
A true story of one asylum patient’s struggle as her focus on returning home does not go as she planned.
WELLOW
Dir: Sally Waterman Wri: T. S Eliot
United Kingdom, 2020, 10 min, Cert 15
‘Wellow’ dwells upon place, ancestry, mortality and religion, triggered by the redevelopment of the artist’s late Grandfather’s Baptist church in a rural village on the Isle of Wight.
THE BEEKEEPER
Dir/Prod: William McGregor
United Kingdom, 2020, 12 min, Cert 15
A tenant beekeeper shares the complexities of living in a place slated for new development with positive financial for her community but sad implications for herself and the environment.
HUG
Dir/Prod: B Welby Wri: Shaun Kobrak
United Kingdom, 2020, 4 min 35 sec, Cert 15
A young man, having missed his chance to say goodbye to his recently passed mother, finds a way to embrace her in her passing.
THE BODY AND THE NAME
Dir: Christina Ruloff, Wri: Howard Barker , Prod: Christina Ruloff
United Kingdom, 2020, 13 min 27 sec, Cert 15
Although dead, Mary consciously contemplates her past and the relationship with her lover.
EMILIE & ELMA
Dir/Wri: Edoardo Cimatti, Prod: Brandon Dalby
United Kingdom, 2019, 8 min 19 sec, Cert 15
Past, present and future collide as two sisters, Emile and Elma, struggle with loss and their shared fear of separation.
BOY IN THE BACK SEAT
Dir/Wri/Prod: Scott Pickup, Prod: Jonny Ross, James Owen, Simon Marriott
United Kingdom, 2022, 12 min 49 sec, Cert 15
1986. A young boy is left unattended in the car while his volatile dad takes care of some ‘business’ in a dodgy local pub. What could possibly go wrong?
TRT: 89 min 38 sec