THE PEARL COMB

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Written & Directed by Ali Cook

Produced by Ross Williams & Matthew James Wilkinson

In 1893, a fisherman’s wife becomes the first person to cure someone of tuberculosis. A doctor, intent on proving a woman’s place is in the home and not practising medicine, investigates - only to discover the source of her unearthly power.

ABOUT THE FILM

The Pearl Comb was an Official Selection at our 2025 BIFA Qualifying Kino London Short Film Festival, having been nominated for 6 awards, and winning Best Production Design and Best Cinematography.

It premiered at FrightFest and Tampere, making quite a dent in the festival circuit. Highlights include winning a Méliès d’Argent Award – Best European Fantastic Short Film at Grossmann Fantastic Film and Wine Festival, winning Best Cinematography & Best Horror Short at Flickers Rhode Island’s Vortex, winning Best After Hours Short at Cleveland International Film Festival, and many, many more…

The film was recently Oscar Shortlisted and BAFTA Longlisted.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

The Pearl Comb follows Cook’s BAFTA-longlisted short The Cunning Man, which screened at 88 international festivals, including Cinequest, FrightFest, Cleveland, and the BAFTA- and BIFA-qualifying Norwich Film Festival, winning 33 awards and earning a Méliès d’Argent nomination.

Cook first broke out as a writer-performer with seven of his own comedy series, including Channel 4’s Dirty Tricks, which was nominated for a British Comedy Award. As an actor, he is known for playing Sgt. Paul McMellon in the BAFTA-nominated Kajaki and as series regular DCI Simmons in Ragdoll for AMC/BBC One. He will soon appear as Ben in Channel 4’s Falling, written by Jack Thorne.

Cook’s next directorial project will be the feature The Grimoire, co-written with Eric Garcia (showrunner of Netflix’s Kaleidoscope) and produced by Chris Curling at Zephyr Films. Curling has produced more than 60 films, including Oscar-nominated The Last Station, starring Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer and James McAvoy, and The Miracle Club with Maggie Smith and Kathy Bates.

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH ALI

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Hi Ali!

We're excited to be featuring The Pearl Comb as our Weekly Pick. Not only because it's Oscar Shortlisted and BAFTA Longlisted, but because it's a film that we believed in even before its recent success. 

Can you tell our audience a bit about yourself and all the hard work tha’s led to this point?

Originally, and for a long time, I was a professional magician. I was very lucky to be on TV as a magician, which is like the holy grail for most of us. I ended up making seven TV series for a company called Objective Productions. My old boss there was Andrew O’Connor who famously invented Peep Show; he’s a very clever TV producer. One day whilst we were making a TV series, he said: “You know I think you’d be a good actor.” And the cameraman said: “I think you’ve got a good face to be a villain”. These comments kind of stuck with me so I started acting, kept writing and here I am.

Tell us about the genesis of The Pearl Comb. Where did the idea come from and how did you develop that idea into the short that’s now made its way out into the world?

I’ve always wanted to portray mermaids authentically, as brutal killers like in the original folk tales, not as Disney princesses.

Then I heard the true story of the Edinburgh Seven: The first seven women to qualify as doctors in the UK. The medical profession did everything they could to stop them from practicing and the female doctors of that time had to come up with inventive lies to justify the work they were doing by claiming to be midwives or natural healers.

It felt like the right time to bring these stories together - especially now, when there’s a bigger conversation happening around gender, power, and the way women have historically been overlooked, misunderstood, or even seen as threatening or strange, just for being different.

What were some of the main obstacles you experienced during the making of the film? 

Creating a convincing mermaid on screen!

Also, the mermaid shooting out of the water during the boat scene springs to mind. It’s such a pivotal scene and the sequence was shot in a studio, with all the water effects achieved digitally. The challenge of creating that moment, making the digital effects blend seamlessly with the performance, gave me a whole new appreciation for how visual storytelling can transform a scene.

How did you overcome them? 

It took months of discussion and inventive work with the SFX and VFX teams. I had to trust my imagination and the brilliance and experience of the team. When you believe in your instincts and you surround yourself with people who bring their own spark, the work starts to flow naturally.

Can you talk a bit about your process and how you balanced your performance with your role as director?

Preparation was crucial for me so that once I was in front of the camera, I could fully focus on the performance. I also found it invaluable to have someone I trust watching the monitor and giving me feedback, which I did.

Being an actor myself, I know how vulnerable it feels when all eyes are on you. Therefore, I know the best approach is to constantly reassure your actors and give them encouragement. Strangely, being in the ring with the other cast makes it feel more like a team effort for me, as if we’re all in it together. It really works well.

Who was the first collaborator to come on board the project and how did their early adoption help propel you forward?

Our storyboard artist Daniel O’Donnell-Smith and Koala FX.

We knew from the outset that the project would involve a significant amount of VFX, so it made sense for us to get to grips with this early on. Having a tight shot list allowed us to have conversations with Koala at an early stage and work out how to approach the work as economically as possible while still giving the story what it demanded.

Can you chat about your producers Ross and Matthew, how they came aboard the project and what they brought to the table?

I first met Ross on a short film I wrote called The Cunning Man. He did such a fantastic job that I knew I wanted to collaborate with him again on this project. When Ross had to jump on to the series Funny Woman, Matt Wilkinson came on board.

I’ve known Matt for years and have acted in several of his films. Even though this project was a short, he treated it the same as a feature and held me accountable to a tight shoot and post-production schedule. It really felt like I was responsible for delivering and that was a good push.

If I’ve done my research correctly, I believe you premiered at FrightFest, yes? How was that experience?

Yes, FrightFest was our first screening and UK premiere. Being recognised by one of the world’s top-reviewed genre festivals means so much. Genre films often push boundaries and take risks, and to have our work acknowledged in that space was so exciting.

At the same time, we premiered at Tampere Festival in Finland which is known for high-end art-house cinema. So, it was an honour to play both on the same weekend.

A lot of filmmakers believe they need to hit the world’s top festivals first. They often blow their submissions budget in the Sundance level festivals, and they wait to submit to (or skip altogether) second tier/genre/community festivals. But that doesn’t seem to be the approach you took. 

The Pearl Comb has played quite a range of festivals, almost like working your way up the circuit. Can you chat about the approach you took to festival submissions?

I worked with Rebekah at Film Festival Doctor and trusted her strategy. We mainly hit the genre festivals first. When we started getting reviews that this is just as much a drama as a fantasy, we showed it to the drama festival organisers to expand the range of festivals. We just wanted to get it as far and wide as possible. Anything else was a bonus.

The festival circuit is a whiplash whirlwind - doldrums of rejection vs peaks of awards.

Most filmmakers can’t help but to compare themselves to their peers since we all advertise our successes on social media, but oftentimes keep our struggles hush-hush.

During your festival journey, what has been the hardest pill to swallow, and how did you keep going despite that setback?

I’m also a stand-up comedian, and the experience of trying out brand-new material is very similar and can feel quite scary! Ultimately, you have to say that new joke on stage and the audience either love it or they don’t. It’s the same with a short film. The overall motivation to keep going is that when it does kick in, it’s the greatest feeling in the world!

And now the question everyone has been waiting for... How did you manage to get your film released on Disney+ in multiple countries?

By the time the film had built momentum on the festival circuit, we already felt very happy with where things were. Then I came home one day to an email with an offer to stream on Disney which was completely unexpected. All interest is fantastic, but this was especially exciting.

What do you think are the biggest challenges facing emerging filmmakers at the moment, and as someone who’s been able to cut through the noise, what advice would you give to those hoping to follow in your footsteps?

My advice would be to get the story right first within the genre you are trying to master. Even if it’s a film you make on your iPhone with a budget of £500; if it’s a great story with great dialogue it doesn’t matter. The number one issue is people often shoot something where they have a premise or a theme, but no real story or ending.

What aspirations do you have for what’s next?

I have a supernatural horror feature, The Grimoire, in pre-production with Zephyr Films so we’re heading full steams towards that!

How helpful has The Pearl Comb been in getting you on a trajectory of being able to actualise those aspirations?

This was the first film I’ve directed, and pardon the pun, I threw myself in at the deep end by taking on a high-end project with a lot of VFX. I wanted to see if I could handle that level of pressure. Now that I have that experience behind me, and with the encouraging response the film has received, I feel reassured both in myself and in showing others that I can do it again.

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Dear Departed

Written & Directed by Lauren Sims

Produced by Louise Dennett & Richard Sims

A girl who recently lost her Grandfather discovers a hidden post office where you can send and receive letters to a loved one who has passed on, but, she receives the wrong letter.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Lauren Sims is a writer, director and editor residing in Hampshire. She graduated last year from Ravensbourne University with a Bachelor of Arts in Digital Film Production. She has recently founded her production company 'Blue Bucket Productions' with her family.

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH LAUREN

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Welcome to our Short of the Week series. Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background.

I’m Lauren and I am an independent filmmaker from Alton.

I am one of the founders of the production company Blue Bucket Productions and the writer/director and editor of Dear Departed. I am a huge film nerd and would live in the cinema if I could. I also love to play the piano, I composed most of the melodies used in the film that our talented composer, Gary Bamford, turned into the beautiful score that it is. 

Tell us about the genesis of Dear Departed. Where did the idea come from and how did you develop that idea into the short that's now made its way out into the world?

The whole genesis of Dear Departed is a letter that I wish I could send to my Grandpa. We lost him almost 3 years ago. There is so much I didn’t get to say. I was on a train thinking about what I would say to him if I could write him a letter that he could receive. Any one who knows me, knows that I am constantly creating stories in my head and looking for the film in everything. So I thought, no one is going to watch a short film about me writing and receiving letters from my Grandpa, where is the story? So I came up with the main protagonist gets the wrong letter and two families are entwined. The floating letters was one of the first things I came up with. I made a pitch deck and pitched it to my dad. I had magical post office stills and The Grinch post office for inspiration. Now, in our family, they will give me their honest opinion. So when my dad told me he loved it I knew I had something. Dear Departed was really born when my grandma said let’s do it. Then we started this magical and crazy whirlwind. 

What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making Dear Departed and how did you overcome them? 

One of the main obstacles was making a fantasy world with floating letters on a budget. My mum and I sourced props all over charity shops and a family member even found the golden letterbox whilst on a trip in yorkshire. My dad and boyfriend made the post office door and my sister, who also plays the lead, painted it. 

I also had a very delicate subject matter in which it was a year since he passed and the main character, Paige, is based on my sister and myself. The funeral scene was done in one take, from a director’s point of view, it was a perfect take because of the raw emotion. But from a sister’s point of view, it was heart breaking. I was quite distanced emotionally from the reality of the story because I had written it and had created the world. But moments like that affected me massively on set. We overcame this as a team and a family. 

Time for shooting the post office was also a big obstacle over two days. the original idea was to wallpaper the whole room, then our DP, Scarlett, came up with the amazing idea of rotating the set 90° for each angle we needed, so the four walls you see of the post office, is the same wall! 

Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights and/or online release. 

We’ve had the most incredible journey of getting our film to audiences and I am so so grateful. We had the premiere at the REEL cinema in Farnham where we celebrated with cast, crew, family and friends from all over. The fact that everyone was there that evening to support us overwhelmed me in the best way. You can tell I had the best time beause I barely took any pictures! I have thoroughly enjoyed the process of submitting to film festivals through FilmFreeway. Some of my favourite highlights is definitely attending Wellsboro film festival in America. Ollie, my boyfriend, and I went there for a few days where I got to be with my people. Talking film all weekend was a dream and you could tell the festival organisers truly cared about independet film. Being nominated for Best Indie Short Film at the Cannes Film Awards in Nice this year and attending the Birmingham Film Festival gala where I was nominated for Best First Time Filmmaker was also a whirlwind. Crystal Palace and Wolverhampton were also amazing to attend and run by truly passionate organisers. A big highlight for me was when a woman at the Crystal Palace film festival came up to me after our screening and said how moved she was and said ‘I’m going to go write my letter when I get home’. Getting the film on Amazon Prime Video was also a very proud moment! 

What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?

 My advice is use who you know. I used my whole family; from my dad being executive producer to my mum being script supervisor and props master. What locations do you have access to? Our local bookshop, Goldfinch and St.Peter’s church, where I attended at primary school, were all a huge help and we used my families house for many scenes. 

Use creative ways to screen your film. We used the church we filmed in for a screening and Q&A and opened it up to the public. 

BTS is golden. We made a bts film that we showed at our premiere, audiences want to see how you made it and you need stills for promotion. 

Prep prep prep and know what you want. If you don’t have the answer, communicate and say you’ll get back to them when you know. 

Never keep your actors in the dark, go straight up to them after a scene. 

Just reach out to people, what’s the worst that can happen? 

Never stop developing your craft and learning, my friend and I went to the Raindance Saturday Film school a few weeks ago and we left so fired up that we’ve now written a short film we’re co-directing and producing together early next year!

I was made to make movies and want to keep making them, so please feel free to reach out as there are movies to be made! 

Any film recommendations? 

 Wes Anderson’s ‘Asteroid City’ was a big inspiration for me. The black and white scene with Margot Robbie pulls at my heart strings through the beautiful score and symmetrical camera shots and I wanted to convey the same feeling in my film. 

Films that have stuck with me over the years have been ‘A Promising Young woman’, ‘The Iron Claw’, ‘Anora’ and ‘The Brutalist’, I think everyone should watch them. 

I recently watched ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ and how did I wait so long? It’s brilliant and I can’t wait to watch it again.

‘Sinners’, ‘One Battle After Another’, ‘Weapons’ and ‘I Swear’ have been my highlights in cinema this year. 

I personally think that last year was outstanding for movies and I can’t wait to see what 2026 brings.

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Kino Short of the Week - Best of 2025

In 2025 our Kino Short of the Week series featured shorts of all genres ranging from drama to comedy, from fashion films to documentaries and more. 

We continued to feature films on a non-exclusive basis, including distributing films via our own channel and, to help maximise viewership for filmmakers, helped support releases from Omeleto, Dust, and Directors Notes as well as those filmmakers who chose to self-distribute on their own channels.

We of course think every film we selected is worth a watch, but here’s 10 films from our online distribution platform that stood out this year!

10. MILKING THE DOG

Directed by Joe Murphy

Produced by Joe Murphy & Clare McCahery

Phil Rochester battles to conquer Manchester's toughest standup contest, revealing the relentless drive of an artist to perform - even when he's not thanked by audiences for doing so.

9. BUSY

Written & Produced by Megan Smith

Directed by Jane Moriarty

Emma-Leigh and her friends decide to put their next date in the diary, but it proves harder than they anticipate.

8. PLOP

Directed & Produced by Darius Shu

Written by Arron Blake

A desperate woman from the society of rejected singles, known as the Leftovers, takes a bold leap of faith on a revolutionary new dating app, risking everything for one last chance at love.

7. FREEDOM TO BE ALONE

Written & Directed by Alexandre Laurent

Produced by Maël Hajos

Jade opens up through a poem, sharing her story of an intense relationship with a former lover, marked by a toxic hold fuelled by stereotypes and the societal pressure to avoid being alone. Their breakup, far from being a tragic end, becomes a liberation a journey back to herself where solitude emerges as a soothing and healing remedy.

6. DECKSDARK

Written, Directed & Produced by Kane Wilson

Co-Produced by James Freeman

In a dystopian realm where consciousness is encased within neural implants, Logan, a solitary Decksdark, finds himself intertwined with an ethereal entity.

5. AMIGO

Directed by James & Harrison Newman

Written by James Newman & Tom Waterhouse

Produced by Guy Lindley

'Amigo', the rent-a-friend app has taken London by storm. An unfriendly Amigo's life comes crashing down when he finds out his life is a lie.

4. FLORESCENCE

Written and Directed by D I • A L  (Alice Gatti & Diego Indraccolo)
Produced by Peter Wilson

A visually stunning and thought-provoking exploration of the cultural, biological, and symbolic roles that flowers play in our understanding of gender and sexuality. Blending elements of a fashion film, short documentary, and experimental visual essay, Florescence dismantles the simplistic, often gendered associations that flowers have been assigned throughout history.

3. CONTEMPORARY

Directed by Zaeem Asad

Produced by Emma Raz

This short documentary explores the transformative power of art through the stories of three groundbreaking UK-based artists—Denai Moore, a vegan Jamaican chef revolutionizing cuisine; Mr Cenz, a graffiti artist reshaping urban landscapes; and Bimini, a drag performer pushing the boundaries of identity and performance.

2. SATISFACTION

Directed by Bailey Tom Bailey

Written by Christopher Buckley

Produced by Marek Lichtenberg & Nathan Craig

Georgian England. A society lady raises her pistol to duel with her aristocratic mentor over a grave insult.

1. ALONE ACROSS GOLA

Written, Directed & Produced by Jude Kriwald

Edited by Christian Burnett

This gripping short documentary follows Jude’s extraordinary solo journey through Liberia's dense Gola rainforest - a landscape uncharted by roads or paths, where every step meant battling through thick undergrowth with nothing more than a bicycle and a tent.

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SHORTS CLOSE TO HOME

Kino is of course run for the benefit of filmmakers, by filmmakers.

While it didn’t quite feel right patting ourselves on the back for our own work by including these in our Top 10, we’re proud of our Kino Original work from festival director & CEO Dustin Curtis Murphy, the work of our Senior Festival Programmer Gillian Harker and Festival Programmer Mark van Heusden.

EVERYTHING IS OUT TO GET ME

JINX

I UNDERSTAND

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Submit to our Short of the Week series to be considered for our 2026 season

Decksdark

Written, Directed & PRODUCED by Kane Wilson

CO-PRODUCED by James Freeman

In a dystopian realm where consciousness is encased within neural implants, Logan, a solitary Decksdark, finds himself intertwined with an ethereal entity.

about the film

DECKSDARK first came across our desk when it was in post-production and seeing completion funds via our Short Film Fund. We shortlisted the projected, and while it did not win the funding, we screened the film at the 2025 edition of our BIFA qualifying film festival as part of the Lovers & Ones That Got Away screening block which featured exclusively films either produced via our fund (a.k.a. “Lovers“) or shortlisted for our fund (a.k.a. “Ones That Got Away“).

Other festival highlights include winning Best Short Made in Wales at the BAFTA-qualifying Carmarthen Bay Film Festival, winning several awards at BIAFF, and winning the Big Picture Film Festival. It was nominated at SCI-FI LONDON, the BIFA qualifying Sunrise Film Festival, Waco Independent Festival, Northampton Film Festival, and a Smei-Finalist at Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival. The film was handpicked and given 5 Stars at Short Films Matter.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Kane Wilson is a filmmaker from rural Leicestershire, England. Growing up surrounded by open landscapes and quiet spaces shaped his sensitivity to mood, silence, and human behaviour. He began making films as a teenager, quickly gaining recognition for his experimental approach to storytelling and earning Student of the Year in college.

Kane’s films inhabit dystopian worlds that feel uncomfortably close to our own. His work examines how technology reshapes intimacy, memory, and identity, always anchored by an emotional core.

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH KANE

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Welcome to our Short of the Week series. Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background.

I’m a UK-based writer and director who came into filmmaking in a fairly hands-on way. I started making shorts young, mostly through trial and error, and that process of experimenting and learning by doing has stuck with me. Early on I realised I was less interested in polish for its own sake and more interested in mood, character, and what sits beneath the surface of a story.

My work often leans toward dystopian ideas, but it’s really about human connection within those worlds, how people cling to intimacy, routine, or escape when systems start to fail them.

I’ve just finished a new film called We Dream in Colour, which has been an incredible experience to make. It pushed me creatively and emotionally in ways I couldn’t fully expect, and I genuinely can’t wait for people to see it and bring their own interpretations to it.

Tell us about the genesis of Decksdark. Where did the idea come from and how did you develop that idea into the short that's now made its way out into the world?

"Decksdark" was born out of my fascination with the rapid advancement of AI and the way technology shapes our lives. We live in an era where the world is completely reliant on technology, and our everyday existence is intricately woven with it. This film explores the desire to break free from that digital grip and live off-grid, away from the pervasive influence of a technology-driven society. Decksdark is a future where escaping that control isn’t easy, and Neural Implants become devices of societal oppression rather than tools for human evolution.

In today’s hyper-connected world, we ironically find ourselves more disconnected from each other than ever. Strangers remain strangers, and our ability to empathise and communicate on a deep, human level is diminishing. I see younger generations losing their connection to nature and their belief in the unexplainable magic of the world around us. Through "Decksdark," I wanted to create a beacon of hope, a reminder that true freedom lies in understanding oneself and reconnecting with the natural world, the only reality that cannot be manipulated by technology.

We're of course very familiar with this film as it was also shortlisted for our Kino Film Fund, and although it didn't win the funding in the end, we did feature it as an Official Selection at our 2025 festival. What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making Decksdark and how did you overcome them?

The biggest obstacle on Decksdark was fairly simple but significant: we were filming in a very remote part of Wales, and we only had three days to make the film. That immediately shaped every creative and practical decision.

We got through it with a lot of preparation and a genuinely brilliant crew who were ready to adapt to anything the location threw at us. On the creative side, I designed the story so that character and atmosphere could do most of the heavy lifting, rather than relying on scale. In the end, those limitations pushed us to be more focused, and they played a big part in defining the tone and identity of the film.

Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights and/or online release.

Decksdark had a really strong journey to audiences. It began on the festival circuit, where it was fortunate enough to win at a BAFTA-qualifying Welsh film festival, which gave the film an incredible early boost.

As a fitting send-off to its festival run, the film was then selected to be showcased on DUST, the largest online platform dedicated to sci-fi short films. Seeing it reach a wider audience has been hugely rewarding. It’s now passed 80,000 views, which is far beyond anything I initially imagined for the film.

Licensing popular songs for use in a short film is something that's typically unaffordable for most filmmakers, but you have a pretty amazing story about how you got permission to use the Joy Division track. Can you tell us about it?

A lot of filmmakers shy away from using well-known music because licensing can feel intimidating or completely out of reach, which can be true for some films, but with shorts there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

My approach was to take the time to properly understand how music licensing works for film.

It can feel complex at first, but once you get past that initial barrier, you realise there are people on the licensing side who genuinely want to help independent filmmakers, especially when it comes to short films.

Once you’ve made contact, I’d always suggest arranging a quick ten-minute phone call and simply shooting your shot. Speaking to someone directly makes the process feel far more human, and that personal connection often goes a long way in building trust and opening doors.

With Decksdark, I initially secured a licence that covered the festival run only. When the opportunity came to release the film on YouTube, I was worried that extending the licence would come with huge additional costs. Instead, I found the process long, but straightforward, and the agreement could be extended without dramatically changing the deal. That experience really changed how I think about using existing music in independent films.

What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?

I’ve always been drawn to telling stories where the world feels bigger than the film itself, so audiences leave wanting more. No matter where an idea starts, whether it’s a concept, a character, or even a piece of music - my biggest advice is to keep bringing your focus back to character. Ask yourself what you’re actually trying to say to the audience through that character’s journey.

I’d also say: don’t rush casting. Getting the right actor changes everything. When the performance is right, the film opens up in ways you can’t always plan for, and your role as a filmmaker shifts from controlling every detail to discovering new possibilities within the story.

Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist? Give us one Hollywood feature, one short, and one indie feature.

Go and watch Children of Men if you haven’t. If you have, watch it again. And if you can recite most of the scenes like I can, drag someone along and insist they experience it with you. Who you watch a film with, completely changes how it lands, and Children of Men manages to give you something new every single time.

For a true indie feature that inspired parts of Decksdark, I’d recommend The Survivalist. It uses its environment brilliantly, feels properly lived-in, and features some fantastic performances - including a very early, very memorable Mia Goth.

For a short film, check out Dogbone by Austen Taylor Pease. It’s a film that pulls every possible emotion out of its central character and delivers something genuinely honest. Austen and his team are absolutely ones to watch.

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Alone Across Gola

Written, Directed & Produced by Jude Kriwald

Edited by Christian Burnett

Alone Across Gola is an award-winning adventure documentary by debut filmmaker Jude Kriwald. This gripping short film follows Jude’s extraordinary solo journey through Liberia's dense Gola rainforest - a landscape uncharted by roads or paths, where every step meant battling through thick undergrowth with nothing more than a bicycle and a tent.

His clothes drenched with sweat, Jude carried his 53kg bike over fallen trees, navigated ravines with collapsed bridges, and faced life-threatening moments. It’s an adventure that pushes the limits of endurance, self-reliance and the human spirit, and often has Jude asking “is this route even possible”, all whilst filming the endeavour totally unsupported.

The film goes beyond clichés of gnarly adventure to offer a reflection on the struggles of pursuing childhood dreams that often get sidelined by the pressures of modern life. Through moments of profound introspection, Jude’s journey asks: What happens when we step off the beaten track of our careers and everyday routines to follow the dreams we thought we’d left behind?

ABOUT THE FILM

ALONE ACROSS GOLA won Best Micro-Budget Short at our BIFA qualifying film festival this past summer 2025. Other festival awards highlights include winning Best Short Documentary at the London Global Film Awards and Best Documentary at Phoenix Rising Film Festival and Feel the Reel Film Festival. It was nominated for Best Documentary at Cambridge Short Film Festival and selected for the Royal Geographical Society Preview - Explore Symposium.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Jude Kriwald is a first-time filmmaker from Bristol, UK. An experienced explorer, he has recently turned his hand to creating his first short film, a documentary edited by award-winning editor Christian Burnett.

Jude was recently named as Emerging Leader of the Year by the British Exploring Society, in recognition of his voluntary work as Basecamp Manager on their summer expedition. The expedition saw Jude and 11 other leaders guide 30 teenagers and young adults from difficult backgrounds on a life-changing and confidence-building two-week expedition in the Scottish Highlands.

In 2012, aged just 19, Jude cycled from England to India through regions such as Afghanistan and Tibet, whilst enduring temperatures as low as -31c and navigating malaria, typhoid, and being held up at gunpoint.

In 2023, Jude has opened his adventures up to the world. He is the founder of AdventureMentor.org, a service which offers free mentoring for people typically under-represented in the world of adventure. Through Adventure Mentor, Jude offers practical support as well as confidence and mindset mentoring to ensure that lack of knowledge, confidence or privilege should never be a reason someone misses out on the life-changing benefits of adventure.

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH JUDE

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Hi Jude!

Welcome to our Short of the Week series.

Alone Across Gola isn’t only your debut film, but it was also an Award Winner at our festival this past summer. Impressive debut! Can you tell our audiences a bit about yourself and your background?

I'm an adventurer interested in using challenging trips to explore what drives us, connects us and, sometimes, troubles us. My real passion lies in authentic adventures and I share these through film, public speaking and writing. Alone Across Gola is my first film and has exceeded all my expectations in terms of how much I've enjoyed it and how it's been received!

Let's talk about the genesis of Alone Across Gola.

This is a very personal documentary project. It's more about you documenting your ambitious journey vs scratching a filmmaking desire.

I assume the idea for the trip came before the idea to film it. Can you tell us about how and why you decided to take this journey, and when you decided filming would be a part of it?

Great question! I decided to make the journey through West Africa after ignoring, for too long, a burning desire to get back out in the wild. West Africa seemed like the perfect blend of fascinating cultures, untamed wilderness, and the right amount of large animals to make things exciting. I initially filmed the trip for my own YouTube series that I was editing and producing on the go, from West African hotel rooms. In the end, I got fed up with using my travel time for post production so continued filming and resolved to edit upon returning home.

It was only after having the wild, unexpected and immensely challenging experience on the jungle, the key vehicle of the film, that I decided to create a proper short film. 

We usually ask filmmakers what the main obstacles were experienced when making their films, however, in your case the entire journey is one big obstacle that you had to overcome. Maybe you can chat about how documenting this trip added to the challenges?

That was a pretty unique challenge! I was truly alone in the jungle - no crew or fixers of any sort. So after 12 hours of slogging my bike across jungle terrain each day, often progressing only 7km every 24 hours, I'd have to sit up in my sauna of a tent and spend an hour copying files from my SD cards, onto my laptop and then onto my hard drive at night. That hard drive was the only "copy" I had of any of those files, so I always feared losing it. 

Then there's of course the challenge of setting up tripods before any tough section of the jungle - essential if I wanted to capture the right footage to share the story back home. There were times when the going was just too tough and I didn't film - safety had to come first!

Let's chat about the editing process. Your film has a longer run time for a short, yet it's captivating every minute without a second of run time wasted. How much footage did you walk away with and what stuff ended up on the cutting room floor?

The best decision I ever made was to work with seasoned editor, Christian Burnett. He not only edited the film but mentored me through the whole post-production stage. I ended up with about 100 clips each day to choose from. There are still whole stories and fascinating sections that have never been seen as we were really conscious to keep the flow tight. We even discussed making it a feature film at the start, there was that much footage. On the other hand, once we had a tight cut, one of my favourite parts was going through and working with Christian to add short bits of space for the audience to breathe - it's such a high octane and emotive film that it felt important to allow people to catch their breath and reflect. 

Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights and online release.

What advice or hacks would you give to other short documentary filmmakers?

The festival circuit was such a journey for me! It started with six straight "no"s but, by the end of its run a year later, I was getting almost all "yes"s, even from the big ones. That just showed to me that, rightly or wrongly, many festivals do look at how your film has performed at other festivals, and I had to build up organically. I also changed my film poster after that first run of rejections, working with a pro to make something more reflective of the film itself, which I think made a huge difference.

It's been such a momentous joy sharing it with audiences, and there are too many highlights to properly choose from. Ones that stand out are picking up the Audience Award at the very first festival I attended (English Riviera) - that meant a lot as all the "judges" were sat in the room with me! To finish, Alone Across Gola ended its festival run by showing at the Grand Rex in Paris, the largest cinema hall in Europe - where it also picked up an award - that was a night I'll never forget! As for its YouTube release, that's just been crazy, especially in terms of the viewing numbers - it's so moving to see people from around the world, that I'd never otherwise reach, resonate with the message and share that back to me.

My best tip would be to make sure you're applying to at least some festivals that are very specific for your niche (in my case mountain film festivals). That's where at least 50% of your selections are likely to come from, plus you'll meet people directly involved in your industry or interests. And don't be too perturbed if you get a load of "no"s at the start! 

What's next for you, in terms of filmmaking?

Honestly, I'm not too sure. I've grown increasingly aware of how filming myself on adventures can detract from having an authentic adventure. I'm very interested in exploring more analogue adventures (e.g. no GPS or phone, navigating with a compass and the stars), so that would either require someone else to film or, alternatively, maybe I'll write about these explorations rather than make a film, we'll have to wait and see! 

Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?

Do all you can to see the short film Sand Dancers. I saw it recently at Kendal Mountain Film Festival - it left me inspired, deeply moved and with tears rolling down my cheeks.

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VISIT JUDE’S WEBSITE

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Gone Fishing

Directed by Christopher Deakin

WRITTEN & produced by paul ludden

Men of a certain age will generally talk about anything other than their mental health. Ben and Pete are no different.. Two middle-aged mates on their first fishing trip since their friend Marko took his own life, a complete and utter shock to them both. Even the crazy stories, dark humour and piss taking can’t stop them opening up in a way they never expected.

ABOUT THE FILM

GONE FISHING was an official selection at the BAFTA qualifying Bolton International Film Festival, and a Semi-Finalist at our very our BIFA qualifying Kino London Short Film Festival. Other festival highlights include Barcelona Indie Filmmakers Festival, Montpellier Indie Filmmakers Festival, and Madrid Indie Filmmakers Festival. It’s been featured by Film Shortage. Award included Best Actor at Cine Paris Film Festival 2024, Best Short Film & Best Screenplay at Folkestone Film Festival 2025, Best (NW) Short at KINOFilm Manchester International Festival 2025 and Best Director at TMFF.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Paul Ludden is a Writer/Producer from Manchester, he is also the CEO of MancMade Productions. Paul’s third film, Being Billy (starring Con O’Neill) his second with Lee Child as Exec-Producer (they first worked together on The Visit) is currently in post-production.

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH paul

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Welcome to our Short of the Week series. Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background.

My name is Paul Ludden and I’m the Writer and Producer of Gone Fishing Short. Gone Fishing is the second short film written and produced by me for MancMade Productions. We’ve just finished filming our third short film, Being Billy. That’s in post-production and should be ready for festivals very early part of 2026. In the meantime I’m working on the script for our first feature, inspired by The Visit short film we released a couple of years ago.

Tell us about the genesis of Gone Fishing. Where did the idea come from and how did you develop that idea into the short that's now made its way out into the world?

Gone Fishing is a story that has been running through my mind for a long, long time. It’s actually dedicated to the memory of a friend of mine who took his own life back in the early 90’s. I wrote, produced and directed a “Pod Play” (audio-drama) of Gone Fishing a couple of years ago, released on The Pod Play, a platform I founded to support new writing. The theme was pretty much the same but it was rewritten as a short film because I’m passionate about doing whatever I can to get men to start conversations about their mental health and I wanted to create something that would hopefully resonate with men of a certain “vintage” like me, who are pretty shite about talking about how they feel.

What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making Gone Fishing and how did you overcome them?

As with most short films the biggest obstacle was probably funding. I make sure that everyone involved gets paid a decent day rate. Some people may accept less than normal compared to the bigger productions they’re used to working on, and that was certainly the case for the actors. This was all self-funded and I was also lucky enough to work with partners who were prepared to do whatever they could to work within the budget I had.

Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights and/or online release.

Gone Fishing has had great feedback from festivals around the world. We’re talking about a subject that resonates with lots of people, regardless of language barriers (but with subtitles). The Festival circuit has its issues, no doubt about that. But I’ve found a good few that are absolutely about supporting the films and the filmmakers first and foremost, Kino London Short Film Festival being one, so I recommend those to other filmmakers. In terms of selections there is definitely no exact science but if a festivals heart is in the right place, selected or not, they should be supported.

What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?

My advice to any short filmmakers is always the same. Work with people you want to spend time with and are good at what they do, certainly in terms of crew. Work with different Directors, you can learn something from everyone that will help you. Work with quality actors, don’t just give roles to your mates. Don’t put up with toxicity on any production, life is too short to work with people who are dicks.

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Interested in getting your work selected as Short of the Week?

Florescence

Written and Directed by D I • A L  (Alice Gatti & Diego Indraccolo)
Produced by Peter Wilson

Florescence is a visually stunning and thought-provoking exploration of the cultural, biological, and symbolic roles that flowers play in our understanding of gender and sexuality. Blending elements of a fashion film, short documentary, and experimental visual essay, Florescence dismantles the simplistic, often gendered associations that flowers have been assigned throughout history. The eclectic cast adds a rich layer of contemporary perspectives on gender discourse, anchoring the film’s narrative with authenticity and personal insight.

Crafted with a great amount of practical effects and a bit of old school CGI, Florescence juxtaposes serene beauty with violent transformations—drowning, burning, and battering the flowers—as a metaphor for the constraints imposed by societal norms. This relentless and symbolic treatment of flowers serves as a compelling vehicle to question cultural ideals surrounding gender and identity.

ABOUT THE FILMmakers

D I • A L is a directing duo formed by Diego Indraccolo and Alice Gatti in 2015. Alice’s and Diego met on commercial sets. They have covered several different roles in advertising as well as non-commercial productions including producing, directing, cinematography, editing and motion graphics. Their experiences together and the chemistry they have found on set has led them to undertake the roles of “director” together. Their work strives to depict reality in an otherworldly atmosphere. They are also a real life couple and they both share an addiction for "Buffy - The Vampire Slayer".

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH D I • A L

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Welcome to our Short of the Week series. Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background.

We are Diego and Alice, a directing duo working under the name of D I • A L.

Alice: I grew up in a small town near Rome in the late 90s, at the peak of the MTV generation, completely obsessed with music videos.

After studying media design I began working across different roles in production: video maker, editor, motion designer, and assistant director, all experiences that now feed directly into my directing work.

Diego: I was born in Naples, Italy, and moved to London at the age of 18, where I pursued my photographic career.

I worked my way up, from assisting to still photographer, then transition into the video, as a director and cinematographer. While I still work as a cinematographer, I am now focusing primarily on directing work together with Alice.

Tell us about the genesis of Florescence. Where did the idea come from and how did you develop that idea into the short that's now made its way out into the world?

It all started in the simplest way possible. We wanted to do something with a different sensibility from the commercial space we work in.

We love flowers and think they are beautiful. We knew they would make an incredible subject matter, but the more we delved into their biology and cultural significance, the more we realised that we had to layer the project with a sense of significance, something that spoke both to their beauty and their symbolism in a meaningful manner.

The gender and sexual perspective came later on and in hindsight it was inevitable all along.

What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making Florescence and how did you overcome them?

It’s been such a journey.

Funding is always a struggle, which is why we decided to make it into an editorial and self-finance the project. Getting a publication attached means we could have access to models and styling beyond the scope of the project. It also becomes more appealing for getting other professionals involved, both in production and post-production.

Regarding the filming, “Florescence” features many different environments, so one of the main challenges was finding a few locations that could accommodate most scenes without having to move the crew. Aside from the lavender field, we managed to shoot everything in just two locations: one exterior and one interior. We had to get creative and adapt several elements from the original script to make it work.

In the end, every film comes with its share of logistical challenges. It’s part of the game, and also part of the fun.

Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights and/or online release.

Florescence was originally structured and produced to be a fashion editorial for Schon! magazine.

After we started to get an much warmer reception that we had hoped for, we felt that perhaps we had something more powerful in our hands and decided to do a festival run. This again has surpassed all our expectations, not only for the calibre of the festivals we have been shortlisted in, but also for the awards and accolades that it has steadily accumulated.

What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?

That’s really a million-dollar question because we are aware that each path is completely different and impossible to recreate.

Moreover, projects in the “shorts” space are incredible varied and some might require you to look for fundings and would not be possible to produced otherwise whilst others can be done with a tiny crew and a DIY approach.

With this in mind we would only dare to suggest to take the time to understand what makes you happy in the creative process. Do it with love and be nice to people.

Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?

The latest film we watched and loved as we write this is “Steve” by Tim Mielants.

Other highlights from this year’s releases that truly stood out for us include Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” and Rose Glass’s “Love Lies Bleeding.”

For those who have the chance to see them, we’d also like to recommend two remarkable Italian indie projects that both premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

“Orfeo”, the debut feature by Virgilio Villoresi, a reinterpretation of the Orpheus myth based on a graphic novel. The film blends stop-motion animation and live action to create truly unique, mesmerising visuals, accompanied by an exceptional original score.

“6:06” from Tekla Taidelli is a fast-paced road movie that follows the journey of a minimum-wage worker struggling with substance abuse, joined by Jo-Jo, a mysterious French girl. The film is infused with surreal moments, raw emotion, and genuine heart.

Both films have limited, niche distribution, but we strongly encourage you to seek them out if you have the opportunity. They’re the kind of projects that can be hard to find, imperfect perhaps, but they leave a mark.

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FOLLOW D I • A L ON INSTAGRAM

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Interested in getting your work selected as Short of the Week?

Wolf At The Door

WRITTEN & Directed by Ricky Allen

produced by Lindsay Fraser

Nine-year old Jacob has a vivid imagination, spending hours engrossed in his toys. When he’s disturbed by a stranger’s knock at the door, his world is plunged into uncertainty and his home threatened. With emotions too overwhelming to understand, Jacobs' mind quickly spirals as he grapples to hold on to the people and possessions he loves most.

ABOUT THE FILM

WOLF AT THE DOOR was a Semi-Finalist at our BIFA qualifying Kino London Short Film Festival & Flickers Rhode Island International Film Festival, and an Honorable Mention at the Beeston Film Festival.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Ricky Allen is an award-winning comedy writer & director who turns the quiet and bizarre rhythms of everyday British life into the absurd. Finding comfort in TV shows such as Father Ted and Spaced from a young age, these early obsessions transported him away from the monotony of eating mince every night, being asked if Ricky is short for Richard (it's not) and waiting for the dial-up modem to connect. His latest comedy short DEATH WISH, about a young girl’s dying wish for her mummy to join her in heaven, won Silver at the Young Director Award in Cannes. Ricky is currently writing a TV pilot about a dysfunctional parish choir and a micro short comedy series 'First in the World'.

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH Ricky

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Welcome to our Short of the Week series. Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background.

Hi, I’m Ricky Allen, a filmmaker currently living in London.
My interest in film stems back to my childhood with my dad, where Sunday afternoons were filled with Bruce Lee, Jean-Claude Van Damme and dodgy sci-fi films bought from Poundland. The films were equal parts fascinating and terrifying as I hid behind the couch, peeping over when the blood-curdling screaming had stopped.

Making films wasn’t on my radar until my mid-twenties. I dropped out of school at an early age and before I knew it, I was 19, working at the local Odeon, microwaving hotdogs for customers late for their film. But it was great, I made lifelong friends and got to watch a lot of movies.

Fast forward past a few existential ‘I can’t serve Pick ‘n’ Mix all my life, can I?’ moments and I managed to get a place at college studying music. Suddenly, I was at uni. In my final year, I took a real interest in film after studying The Work of Michel Gondry DVD. For my final project, I made a short film about my dad’s struggles with alcoholism.

But after my education ended, so did the filming. It took a couple of years, and my dad’s passing, before I felt the fleeting fragility of life again. I spent most days in libraries reading about filmmaking, fascinated by directors such as Kurosawa. I shot a skateboard film (Whatever the Weather) that got me onto BBC News and cut my teeth making lots of low-budget music videos. I later moved to London and got a job at Sony Music as one of their in-house directors, making videos for all sorts of artists. I then got a place at NFTS studying  Directing Commercials - this is where I met Lindsay Fraser (Creative Producer), who was an integral part of making Wolf at the Door, my first funded short, along with the majority of the crew.

This year (2025) I won Silver at the Young Director Award in Cannes for my comedy short Death Wish, and I’m currently writing a TV pilot about a dysfunctional choir.

Tell us about the genesis of WOLF AT THE DOOR. Where did the idea come from and how did you develop that idea into the short that's now made its way out into the world?

WOLF AT THE DOOR would still just be a bullet-point note on my laptop if it wasn’t for Lindsay. She’d found a short film competition funded by a company in Manchester called Doodledo and asked if I had any stories. No stories, but a bunch of incoherent musings.

At the time, I was jobless and finances were becoming critical, which had a big impact on my mental health. So the opportunity to write was cathartic and came as a great distraction.

WOLF AT THE DOOR is like one of those core memories that shapes who you are as a person. You don’t necessarily understand why, but it’s there in the background.

It started when my parents were facing one of many financial struggles, and the family home began to attract a lot of intimidating men showing up at the door. Dad would say, “If anyone asks for me, say I’m not in,”. Being ten years old, that just went in one ear and straight out the other. I would have panic attacks and nightmares about men coming to take away our possessions. I really thought it would be all my fault if I slipped up and said my dad was in

After some research, I was disturbed to find this was an issue happening up and down the country, scaring young children when councils send round bailiffs. There was even a research paper that named it WOLF AT THE DOOR.

From there, I spent many months writing and rewriting my experience, trying to capture the isolation of being at home all the time, and how that home could suddenly feel invaded, both by strangers and by my own nightmarish thoughts.

I’d like to give a special thank you to Doodledo, James Torry, Lucy Smith, Duncan Howsley, Joe Spademan and the rest of the team who helped make this film possible. They were amazing with their continued support throughout the whole process.

What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making WOLF AT THE DOOR and how did you overcome them? 

The main obstacle was definitely the child actor. That was our main concern from the start. How do we find a child actor who can give a mature performance?  Luckily, we found Blake Williams, who had featured in a short I had seen from a fellow NFTS student. It was one of those things where it was always going to be him. The film was really blessed to have him in it.

Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights and/or online release.

We premiered at the London Lift Off Film Festival, which was great to be a part of. The film has come very close to some really brilliant festivals, but just missed out, which is a bittersweet feeling - gaining recognition as a semi-finalist at Rhode Island, Kino London and Beeston Film Festival. It’s hard to get noticed and make people love the film you made as much as you do,  so when we were told it was going to be on Kino’s short of the week, me and Lindsay were over the moon.

What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?

I would say - just write as much as possible, even if it’s just a few words of an idea, or something you hear in conversation. You’ll be amazed how much inspiration is out there once you start actively engaging with what you experience in life. 

Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?

Not quite a film, but a series of shorts - Tales of Terror from Tokyo Vol 1. You’ll find a story in there that helped shape Wolf at the Door.

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Interested in getting your work selected as Short of the Week?

Jinx

Written, directed & PRODUCED by GILLIAN HARKER

An embittered, young woman discovers she has the power to exact revenge on her ex-boyfreind who has the audacity to move on with another woman.

ABOUT THE FILM

JINX was created for the 2020 Straight 8 competition and placed Top 25. It also won Best Celuloid at Film Only Festival, was an official section at Tweetfest 2020, and was selected by Shiny Network for the New Directors Programme 2021.

ABOUT THE FILMmaker

Gillian is an award-winning writer and director, recognised by Shiny Network as one of the ‘best new directing talents worldwide’. She is a member of Directors UK and specialises in bold, character-driven storytelling.

Her latest short film, Strip the Peacock Bare- starring Abigail Hardingham, Jess Douglas-Welch, Andre Flynn and Simon Phillips- is currently in post-production. Her previous short film, Tackling, premiered at the BAFTA-qualifying Aesthetica Film Festival in 2022. As a writer, she reached the quarter-finals of the Outstanding Screenplays TV Pilot Competition (2024)  with her debut pilot script, 'Blooming Elle.'

Gillian’s debut short, Cross, starring Ryan Hayes, won multiple awards, including Best Male Actor at the BIFA-qualifying Little Wing Film Festival 2019 and the Audience Award at the 20th Keswick Film Festival 2020.

Her Straight 8 films Jinx and Day 60 were selected for the 2020 and 2021 competitions by a judging panel that included Academy Award-winners Asif Kapadia and Robbie Ryan. Her 2021 film Feast screened at several UK festivals, including BIFA-qualifying Little Wing and Kino: The People’s Festival, and was nominated for Best English Short Film at the British Short Film Awards 2021. 

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH GILLIAN

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Welcome Gill!

You’re no stranger to Kino. A few of your shorts have been Official Selections during the early years of our festival, we’ve featured Cross as a previous Short of the Week, and you’ve been programming for KLSFF the past three years.

How has your experience as a film programmer informed your own filmmaking?

My experience as a film programmer has definitely informed my filmmaking, though the influence is sometimes more instinctive which I find harder to articulate. After three years programming at Kino, I’d say I've developed a much sharper sense of what doesn’t work in a film and a real appreciation for not wasting a single second of screen time. The opening has to be strong and decisive, of course, but it also needs a distinct tone, whatever the genre. How to achieve that is the challenge every filmmaker wishes they had a blueprint for.  Whether I'm able to harness that understanding and apply it to my own filmmaking remains to be seen! No film is ever perfect.  

Programming has also reinforced something I've felt almost allergic to: films that lean too heavily on style over substance. I want every creative choice- the aesthetic, the costumes, the production design, etc...- to feel rooted in the world of the story, not just a “let’s make it a bit Wes Anderson here”.  Finding your own distinct voice is hard, and trusting it without being swayed by what looks “cool” is even harder. When I made my latest short, Strip the Peacock Bare, I was really conscious of staying anchored in the roots of the story when making stylistic decisions. Part of the fun for me is always asking why: Why do they wear this and not that? Why does the scene take place here and not somewhere else? Why this choice over that one?

I’d also hope my experience as a programmer will make rejection a little easier to swallow, because I’ve genuinely seen how often we have to make really tough decisions. We’ve rejected films that one (or more) of us have absolutely loved, for reasons completely beyond the filmmaker’s control. Having said that, I don't feel like rejection is ever palatable! 

You’ve also been quite heavily involved with the Straight 8 community, and Jinx was created specifically for their competition. Can you tell us a bit about the competition?

I love the Straight 8 competition and I love talking about it. I’ve recommended it to so many people, especially emerging filmmakers,  I feel like I should be on commission! In a nutshell, you shoot on a single roll of Super 8, which gives you around 2.5 to 3 minutes. Only in-camera editing is allowed, and there’s zero post-production. The sound and score have to be created separately and then synced at the lab, so nailing the timing is everything. It’s really challenging. But so, so fun! It's a wonderful community of filmmakers and I've been so incredibly inspired by many of the Straight 8 films I've seen. 

sounds quite challenging. How did you find the process, and any tips & tricks for filmmakers looking to try Straight 8?

I absolutely loved making Jinx. Hard to believe it was over five years ago now. It was my first time doing Straight 8 and also my first time working on celluloid, and the process ended up teaching me a huge amount, especially about “show, don’t tell.” Because syncing dialogue is so difficult in Straight 8, I decided early on to make it a silent film, which pushed me to think in a much more purely visual way. With only one roll of Super 8, every frame had to matter and every moment had to move the story forward. Oddly enough, those limitations were incredibly energising.

Acting in it myself added another layer. I felt that in past projects I had been a bit vague with my character intentions, but Straight 8 leaves no room for that- there’s no rescuing a performance in the edit. I had to be very precise about what the character wanted in every single take. And honestly, I loved the chance to lean into something a bit heightened; Super 8 can really embrace slightly over-the-top performances. 

Because you only get one take per shot, rehearsal became a crucial part of the process. I adore rehearsing with actors anyway- it’s where the magic happens- but for Straight 8 it’s basically essential. That would be my number one tip to someone looking to make a Straight 8 film. Rehearse! 

To help with the musical score sync, I also shot and edited a rough proxy version on my phone, which acted as both a storyboard and a pacing guide. It was incredibly useful, and I’d definitely recommend that to anyone attempting Straight 8 for the first time. My 1st AD was really dilligent with helping me keep the pacing accurate for each shot. The whole process is challenging, but if you embrace the constraints, it becomes really fun. 

What’s the inspiration behind Jinx? Would the themes & characters you explore in Jinx have manifested themselves in a digital short had you not done the Straight 8 competition or is there something specific to this story that you felt needed to be told via an 8mm format?

One of my favourite short stories is Thomas Hardy’s 'The Withered Arm'. The ostrasized protagonist learns her ex-lover, and father to her illegitimate child, has just got married to a beautiful, younger woman. Her curiosity and jealously of the new bride quickly becomes a dark obsession and the story takes a gory, supernatural turn with devastating consequences. It's incredible. The seeds of Jinx came from a really and truly dreadful short script I had written based, very loosely, on this brilliant Hardy story, but in a contemporary setting. I soon abandoned that version but the themes of jealousy- particularly between women- loneliness and obsession present in 'The Withered Arm' was something I wanted to keep exploring. I also loved the supernatural element in the original story. 

I did feel Super 8 was naturally suited to a tale with gothic undertones. Its texture and moodiness complement that world beautifully. And, as I mentioned before, Super 8 also lends itself to slightly heightened performances reminiscent of the silent era, which fit the tone of the film perfectly. 

The idea for the doll came from exploring and researching folk magic and witchcraft in Old England. 'Poppets' were dolls made to represent a person, for casting spells on that person- sometimes love spells, but often harmful, vengeful spells. I quite liked the idea of exploring the reasons for wanting to use one of these dolls on someone, and it was particularly fascinating to think about its use for revenge. I wish I had a more scholarly answer as to why I was interested in exploring themes of revenge and jealously at that time, but I had just come out of a long-term relationship so I thought maybe it would be best to channel my heartbreak in a healthy, creative way!! I also wanted to find the dark humour in it all, and hopefully that translates in the final film. 

The characters actually did manifest themselves more becasue of the 8mm and competition restraints. Everything had to come down to the aesthetic.  My mood board for this film was an eclectic mix of visuals. I was really drawn to the work of Edvard Munch too, not just The Scream, but his other works which all depict mental illness, self-loathing, isolation and loneliness in such vividly harrowing, heart-breaking ways. The raw, devastation leaps off the canvas and I wanted to capture some of that in my film. I was really struck by the iconic images of Heath Ledger as The Joker with the smeared red lips, which I echoed for the first moment of possession. I hoped to evoke from that a sense of madness, unbalance and the thirst for violence the protagonist has.  For the choreography and movement visuals, we looked at moments from The Exorcist, and images of contortionists to try to evoke the feeling of violence being inflicted on Maddy's character, and the fear and pain she would be in having been possessed. 

As a short film programmer, what pieces of feedback do you find yourself giving to filmmakers most consistently? How can filmmakers looking to make moves in the short film space avoid common mistakes?

I don’t really know if I give advice. I think most filmmaker can sense what works and what doesn’t when they watch something but it’s much harder to apply to our own work. I would say that the opening few moments in a short film really do matter. If other programmers are like me, they’ll be watching your short on their laptop with a bunch of other films waiting to get seen. I would definitely watch lots of short films, not just features. Watch some early short films from filmmakers that you are inspired by. I think it’s important to watch the early stuff because in most cases you can see the spark but without the finesse which can perhaps be intimidating to grassroots filmmakers. 

You’ve recently wrapped your next short, the ambitious period drama Strip the Peacock Bare. How did production go & can you give us a sneak peak?

I’m really excited to get Strip the Peacock out there. It’s an idea that’s been brewing for about a decade but lay dormant for many years. Production went (mostly) really well. There were really stressful moments at the time, but I look back now and think how much luck was on our side. In terms of a sneak peak, I can't share anything just yet other than a still from the film, but what I will say is that the actors are astonishing. I think we have something really unique to show people. I'm a little apprehensive to talk about it becasue I don't want to 'jinx' anything!! 

Recommendations to add to our watchlist? Give us 1 short, 1 Hollywood feature, & 1 indie feature.

This is tough, but as we're talking about a film I made on film, I thought I would recommend films also shot on film. 

1 Short:

I’d definitely recommend browsing the Straight 8 website as they’ve got a great selection of past films. One of my favourites is Crumbs, which you can find there. It’s a perfect example of how inventive filmmakers can get within the Straight 8 constraints.

1 Hollywood Feature:
Since it’s currently in cinemas, I’d suggest One Battle After Another. It’s bold, beautifully crafted and dizzyingly exciting. It's definitely worth seeing on the big screen.

1 Indie:
Bait by Mark Jenkin. I adore this British indie, shot on 16mm. It’s a brilliant example of a filmmaker with a truly distinct voice- someone who isn’t swayed by trends or what’s considered “marketable,” and instead commits completely to the aesthetic and storytelling style that serves the film. I also think its trajectory is incredibly inspiring for grassroots filmmakers. 

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Amigo

Directed by James & Harrison Newman

Written by James Newman & Tom Waterhouse

Produced by Guy Lindley

'Amigo', the rent-a-friend app has taken London by storm. An unfriendly Amigo's life comes crashing down when he finds out his life is a lie.

about the film

AMIGO was an Official Selection at the 2025 edition of our BIFA qualifying Kino London Short Film Festival. Other festival highlights include the BAFTA qualifying Bolton International Film Festival & Aesthetica Film Festival. It also played at Discover Film Festival, Indie-Lincs Film Festival, Northampton Film Festival, and Cardiff Mini Film Festival. It was released online by Directors Notes.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

James Newman is an award-winning writer-director from Reading, Berkshire, specializing in comedy. With 7-8 short films and an award-winning feature screenplay under his belt, Newman has quickly become a rising force in British independent cinema.

Starting as a runner in Soho’s production companies, he’s since earned 2nd place at Slamdance’s Short Film Screenwriting Competition, 2nd place in The Pitch Film Fund, a British Short Film Award for Best Comedy, and Best Short at our very own Kino London Short Film Festival.

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH jAMES

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Welcome James!

You’re no stranger to Kino. Your film Viskar I Vinden won the 2022 edition of our festival, which awarded you our film fund to help make Do Not Touch - your first collaboration with comedian Sean Walsh. Now you’ve teamed up with Sean once again on your latest film to have just come off the festival circuit, Amigo.

Can you talk about how you came up with the idea for Amigo and how it was initially developed as series, and why you decided to pivot to make it as a short film instead?

So initially, it was about a prostitution app like Uber, and the lead would have been a male prostitute. We wrote that as a TV pilot around 5 or 6 years ago. But we pivoted as the storylines we came up with were about people being lonely and not using the app for sex, but for companionship. And then we thought that there was something in that—the core of the idea is about lonely people desperate to connect with someone. The most valuable thing I’ve learned from going to short film festivals is that all cinema and media which involves storytelling is about human connection, or the lack thereof.

Currently, you’re branching out as you gear up to make another short, The Ladder. You often co-direct. Will this be your first time solo-directing a short?

This isn’t my first time solo directing—I directed my first short, Viskar I Vinden, on my own. But I have co-directed recently on The Pitch’s new comedy short, Kitty, with Lizzie Hart, which I didn’t write. It was incredible to come in on a project that I hadn’t been involved in the writing process for. It’s so far away from what I normally do—it’s super duper charming and sweet. It was really nice to play in someone else’s really well-constructed world.

Join us for a sneak peak at THE LADDER

We’ll screen the key creative team’s previous works + do a public table read of upcoming work in order to get audience feedback.

All proceeds to go directly to topping up production funding for The Ladder, shooting early 2026.

In the past, what has been your motivation to co-direct in most instances & what excites you about helming the director’s chair solo this time around?

The motivation to go back to being solo is that I really enjoy the full responsibility of the film. I want to become a better director, and I think the way to do that is to be fully responsible for all areas of the production rather than delegating between two people. With Kitty, I was more of a conduit for the crew and technical aspects than the actual story and world, whereas I want to stretch myself and get out of my comfort zone to do things that I’m creatively excited about. With the rise of AI, I think we need to tell more human stories and have choices that the characters make that an LLM won’t agree with but makes sense to humans.

The Ladder will be another Kino Original, making you the first filmmaker in Kino’s history to have been granted funds twice. What’s your secret to closing deals to secure funding?

I think the key is to try to outwork your competition. Enter everything, as I think it’s a numbers game. Do your research—what are they likely to commission? I think the key is to write things that interest you rather than trying to win the fund, otherwise people will be able to sniff it out, especially when it’s made and screening at festivals.

The Ladder has also been shortlisted for several other funds including Slick Films, From The Silver Screen, First Flights & more. Can you talk a bit about your funding strategy?

To be honest, I’m very surprised we’ve gotten into the finals or been longlisted for like 75% of the funds we’ve gone after. I think it’s actually quite bizarre. I’m not sure if it’s the subject matter or that it’s quite relatable and speaks to something people are feeling at the moment? But I think the strategy is: package it nicely, reach out to talent and get them attached. I think the goal is to make an undeniable film where everyone can see it doing well on the festival circuit.

Many short filmmakers struggle with even getting in the room to pitch, so well done on making it the room so many times. What do you think within your work and your funding application materials has made the difference to get such positive reception?

I think the subject matter of the housing crisis and intergenerational inequality is something I’m quite angry about, and it’s blended with real experiences with a bailiff. And it’s from lived experience of being really poor in London that I don’t think sounds like a repurposed Guardian article. It helps having producers like yourself and Guy Lindley on board, and a great creative team with Nathan Claridge. I think what’s helped me was going to a webinar with First Flights about what they care about in a funding application, and that helped. I think they have some resources on their website. But I think having a story that connects and characters you care about are crucial, because if you don’t have that, you don’t have a film, in my opinion.

Recommendations to add to our watchlist? Give us 1 short, 1 Hollywood feature, & 1 indie feature.

• Short: The Farm

• Feature: Bugonia

• Indie feature: Grand Theft Hamlet

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High Beams

WRITTEN & Directed by Flora Scott

produced by Diana Amado, Flora Scott and Charlotte Favre

In the early hours of the morning, two best friends must journey home from a party off the M25 amidst a visitation from the past which tests their limits and their friendship.

ABOUT THE FILM

HIGH BEAMS premiered online with Girls in Film and was a Semi-Finalist at our very own Kino London Short Film Festival. Online festival & screening highlights include Minute shorts, Somesuch Director’s showcase, and Filmfiles Emerging Filmmakers showcase. It also screened at The Photographers Gallery in July 2024 for the exhibition ‘Meditations on Love’ and was a special selection at Women winemakers Biennale.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Flora Scott is a photographer and director born, raised and based in Hackney, London. After picking up her dads old camera at the age of 16, Flora began capturing the lives of the people around her, exploring how family can be formed outside of the traditional sense of home.

Flora has exhibited at The Photographers’ Gallery London, and been published in Women CineMakers Biennale 2024, Guap Mag, 6 FT Zine and online at I-D, Dazed and Vogue. 

Flora is currently freelancing with the long terms of directing feature films.

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH FLORA

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Welcome to our Short of the Week series. Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background.

Thank you for having me and High Beams! This is my debut short film, finished in early 2024 with a debut performance from Connie Swift who plays Dani in the film and has never been on screen. My filmmaking background was birthed as an only child left to their own devices - watching countless films on my own. I came to understand early on what I loved about a film is its uniqueness, especially across drama, horror and sci-fi. Over time and after attending Ravensbourne’s Foundation diploma specialising in film and a BA at London College of Communication in Film Practice, making films became more tangible.

Tell us about the genesis of High Beams. Where did the idea come from and how did you develop that idea into the short that's now made its way out into the world?

High Beams is heavily inspired by experiences of my own as a young person in tandem with some of the things I was witness to in my friends’ lives - I wanted to write something that could speak from the point of view of a young woman grieving whilst also the friend on the other end trying their best to be there. It felt important to me to make both points of view feel felt. It also felt important for my first short to be grounded in my own experiences. The rave scene at the beginning is directly inspired by a squat rave we attended as 15/16 year olds off a motorway in Barnet.

What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making High Beams and how did you overcome them? 

My producer unfortunately fell ill (she is ok now!) a week prior to filming was to commence and as she was in Portugal, was unable to come back for shooting. As you can imagine, this made me panic slightly, but in the end we were still able to make things work. Instead for our two days of filmmaking we had two PM’s to save the day - Leyla and Alicia. Aside from that, typical filmmaking travails ensued - we got locked out of a van hired to transport kit, working with a horse for the first time (Ember the horse was very patient) and a super tight window to shoot. All in all I think we did pretty well aside from this!

Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights and/or online release.

At the moment, although it is now available to watch online at Minute Shorts and Girls In Film we are still submitting for more festivals. We were lucky enough to be a semi-finalist for this years Kino fest! I think our main challenge with this has been the price point of submissions, I’ve taken it as a learning curve to ensure for us to budget appropriately for festival fees for the next one! However, High Beams has screened at some wonderful places so far including The Photographers’ Gallery, for Somesuch’s new director showcase at the Curzon Shoreditch and with Filmfiles at their emerging directors showcase. As this is my first short, I’ve definitely had a welcomed lesson in making sure that the festival side of things is thought about from the inception of the film.

What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?

1. Stay true to your vision.

2. Collaboration is the root of a film

3. Look at art outside of cinema

4. Welcome the mistakes, they are inevitable and can lead to better creative solutions

Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?

Baghdad Cafe, Atlantics, We The Animals, McQueen (2018) - All not to be missed.

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Diary of a Ghost

Directed by Caroline Hajny | written by Maren Koenigs

produced by Sophia Ogilvie, Caroline Hajny

After the loss of her first love, a young woman keeps a diary to process her grief, blurring the line between reality and imagination.

ABOUT THE FILM

DIARY OF A GHOST was a Semi-Finalist at our very own Kino London Short Film Festival and won Honorable Mention at the BIFA Qualifying Brighton Rocks Film Festival, as well playing as an Official Selection at the also BIFA Qualifying Sunrise Film Festival Lowestoft. It was longlisted for the 225 Film Club, and longlisted for Best Director and Best England Film at The British Short Film Awards. Other festival highlights include: North East International Film Festival (BIFA Qualifying), Fastnet Film Festival, Fine Line Film Festival, Ealing Film Festival, and Australia Independent Film Festival.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Born and raised in Germany, Carrie relocated to London to pursue a career in film, where she has been working across fashion, music and commercials since. Her previous ventures into fashion photography and documentary filmmaking continue to influence her aesthetic and approach to working with talent. Since then, her distinct style has led to collaborations with brands and artists such as Puma, Vinted, Dua Lipa, Red Bull Racing, Barbour and Amazon.

Her first short film ‘Last Dance’ premiered at the 2019 BAFTA qualifying Underwire Film Festival, where it was nominated for best U25 production. 'Diary of a Ghost', a short drama exploring grief and mental health, stars Genevieve Chenneour (Bridgerton), Alfie Noble and Mia Rodgers (The Sex Lives of College Girls). Her latest film, ‘Requirements’, a political science fiction drama set in a near future dystopia, is currently in post production.

Carrie has been curating film screenings at Sarah Kravitz Gallery and Southampton Film Week and served as a judge at Fine Line Film Festival in Serbia and the BIFA qualifying Sunrise Film Festival. She is also the co-founder of CHERRYPICK.

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH Caroline

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Welcome to our Short of the Week series. Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background.

Thanks so much for having me and Diary of a Ghost! I’m a German director based in London and I work across fashion, commercial and narrative projects. I started out as a camera trainee - a friend of mine took me under his wing and opened the door to the ‘real’ industry for me after I dropped out of uni. I always wanted to be a director, but working on set as crew was a great way to learn how the industry works, what different departments do, meet people and observe other directors work. I took whatever job came my way, a lot of running, PA’ing, assisting, BTS taking, you name it! Simultaneously I worked as a photographer shooting mainly fashion and live music - I enjoy photography a lot, and it helped me find a style I enjoyed, however for me it was always a tool to meet people: designers and artists I could hopefully direct a campaign or music video for. That’s how I built a reel which allowed me to move into commercials. I often get the sense that in the narrative world commercials are looked down on - for me they’ve been such an invaluable training ground! Over the years I’ve been able to build relationships with crew and actors, which allowed to shift focus on narrative projects.

Tell us about the genesis of Diary of a Ghost. Where did the idea come from and how did you develop that idea into the short that's now made its way out into the world?

Diary of a Ghost was written by my wonderful friend Maren Koenigs and was loosely inspired by her witnessing a close relative experiencing prolonged grief disorder. Her relative struggled to cope with the loss, slowly distancing themselves from the rest of the family and losing themselves in an imaginary world in which the person they lost was still around. Luckily, the family managed to intervene, but Maren took the idea and ran with it, asking herself what might happen to someone who doesn’t have a support network. The film was originally written to be a feature and Maren then turned it into a short!

What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making Diary of a Ghost and how did you overcome them?

I’m definitely not the first person to mention budget and finances here, but as a self funded project we definitely had to get nifty and call in a lot of favors to make this film happen. We almost lost our main location less than a week before the shoot due to my producer’s grandma’s superstitions, getting a bullet hole into a piece of glass might have involved some dodgy business (we’re not sure ourselves) and filling two notebooks with hundreds of diary entries for authenticity within a few days causes serious hand pain.

We shot the film over the course of 2 days, in 4 different locations - some in central London, but most in Surrey - so I’d say one of the biggest challenges was probably to fit everything into the days, getting everything we needed while still allowing some room for exploration and play and keeping the shooting hours sensible for our crew. Diary of a Ghost explores incredibly sensitive topics and as a director it’s so important to create an environment in which the actors can be vulnerable - however, when working on a super tight schedule that can be tricky.

For example, the second to last scene of Sage and Riley in the living room was shot in only an hour - it’s 6 or 7 minutes long and it’s the emotional climax of the film - but because we had some delays earlier in the day and we needed to leave the location, we had to somehow squeeze everything into the last hour of our final shoot day. It wasn’t easy to hide how stressed I was at that point, but I knew if I didn’t, it would sabotage the performances.

Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights and/or online release.

It’s been really lovely sharing our film with audiences - this was my first ‘proper’ festival run, so I don’t have anything to compare it to, but ultimately we make films for the big screen, so it’s always special to see them projected in a cinema to an audience. It’s been lovely to see the passion and interest for short films - we’ve been asked such thoughtful questions at Q&As or after screenings about the story, themes and process of making the film, sometimes people have come out of the screening in tears and that feels like the ultimate compliment to me.

What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?

Your team is everything, so make sure you find a crew that shares your vision and enthusiasm for the film. Great HoDs can make or break your film and will hopefully elevate whatever it is you had in mind.

Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?

The Lives of Others, The Florida Project and Thelma & Louise

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On Purple

WRITTEN & Directed BY Joe Quartararo

PRODUCED by Thomas D White

Seeking constructive criticism, a couple shares their poetry with each other. But it turns into a condescending competition of who’s the better poet.

about the film

ON PURPLE was a Semi-Finalist at the past edition of our very own Kino London Short Film Festival. It’s also played at the New York Short Film Festival and online with Film Shortage and Short Films Matter.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Joe Quartararo is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker and graduate of the film program at the School of Visual Arts. He has been making films professionally through his production company Lakhota Film for over a decade. Joe grew up on Long Island and before going to film school worked as a truck driver, delivering furniture and granite while pursuing filmmaking. His films focus on social class and ambition.

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH joe

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Welcome to our Short of the Week series. Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background.

I am a Brooklyn based filmmaker. I have worked, and continue to work in the film industry both in production and adjacent in presentation. Whether it is handling film, 70mm, 35mm and now Vista Vision, or shooting film both digital and analog formats. I am always interested in helping others create and produce their work, in addition to my own creative pursuits. I've been fortunate to be part of a great collective of filmmakers and crew members in NYC, who helped produce "On Purple," as well as many others projects.

Tell us about the genesis of On Purple. Where did the idea come from and how did you develop that idea into the short that's now made its way out into the world?

The idea for On Purple, came from wanting to explore the idea of indirect communication and the dysfunction of relationships. Poetry felt like a fitting device for the characters to use to build off of and illustrate the marital discord without being too heavy handed. 

What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making On Purple and how did you overcome them? 

Many of the obstacles we would've incurred on this shoot were mitigated by the technical strengths and expertise of the cast & crew we were very fortunate to have. We shot the interiors of this film in one 10hr day with exteriors shot the morning after for a few hours. The amount of material we were able to cover in a single day of shooting without compromising setups & script is uncommon, and that's coming from experience. Because of their collective preparedness and professionalism we were able to maximize the effect of the film.

The score does a really good job elevating and supporting the film, as well as set the tone. Can you tell us a bit about the process of working with your composer on this?

Really glad you asked that question. I was very happy to have connected with Sam Carey, to compose the music for this film. While editing the film, I felt strongly that we would need an original composition to help elevate the material and Sam excelled at capturing the tone of the piece. He developed a musical contrast for the individual poets, to shed light on the subtext of their characters and importantly guide the viewer. Whereas one poet was erratic and angry, the other was elegant and grand. The associated instrumentation was a deliberate mixture of piano, violin and electronics that said a lot about the ebb and flow of their relationship. I had a great collaboration with Sam on this project, I think we both understood that music could help with detailing that mysterious, cryptic and unspoken thing between the two dueling poets.

Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights and/or online release.

We are screening in person in New York next week, and have had multiple online releases (Film Shortage, Short Films Matter, and now Kino). Online releases have been very helpful in that you can reach such a wide audience quickly, although we are excited about screening in person next week, so we can meet and engage with New York filmmakers & producers. 

What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?

Write within your means, write from experience and what you know. If you are passionate about making films, then be around the process of filmmaking as much as you can be. It will not only make you learn to be a better filmmaker, but it will introduce you to the network of people you will need to collaborate with. It truly is a group effort to make a film. Be positive, helpful and resourceful and your film will be better for it.

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Also Resisters

Directed & PRODUCED Christina D. Bartson

Narration by Sonia Desai Rayka

Also Resisters considers solidarity across generations and geography. Adapted from a 1968 essay by the gay American socialist David E. McReynolds, the short archival film takes the images and sounds of the American war in Vietnam to reflect on the feedback loop between militarism abroad and at home — and the people who resisted it.

about the film

ALSO RESISTERS premiered at the Big Sky Film Festival. It also played at Mountainfilm, Mimesis Film Festival, Sarajevo Film Festival, SFFILM Doc Stories, DOC NYC, and was an Official Selection of The Smalls.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Christina D. Bartson is a filmmaker and archivist based in London with roots in the American Midwest. Her work explores the political economy of media and how narratives of conflict, social movements, and land are mobilized—and often metastasized—through archival materials.

Her work has been supported by If/Then Shorts and Field of Vision, Arts Council England, 2024 NBCUniversal Original Voices Accelerator Fellowship, 2023 Global Research Initiatives Fellowship (New York University), 2023 Moore Research Fellowship (Swarthmore College), and more. She holds her M.A. from New York University where her graduate research focused on critical media theory, ethnographic cinema, and war media, and her B.A. from Emerson College.

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTINA

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Welcome to our Short of the Week series. Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background.

Thank you so much for sharing Also Resisters as part of this series—it means a lot to be among many talented filmmakers.

My name is Christina, and I’m a filmmaker and archivist based in London, with roots in the American Midwest. Like many of my peers, I came to film in a roundabout way. My first love has always been dance, and I think that sensibility—an attention to rhythm, gesture, movement—still shapes the way I approach storytelling.

Film came later, after years of working as a journalist and researcher, while secretly harboring a desire to put images, words, and music together on screen. At 25, I began working in documentary production and quickly found myself drawn to archival research, which has since become my professional home. My practice as a filmmaker is entirely animated by the archive and my fascination with questions of inheritance, collective memory, and how we can mobilize materials from the past to resist violences, shatter our psychological complicity, and reveal our porousness to others near and far. 

My academic background is in journalism and media theory, and my political grounding comes from a Marxist critical media practice. Anti-imperialism, solidarity, mutual aid, and civic engagement are inseparable from my practice. Editing my own work during graduate school was the first time I felt I’d finally found the right form to express, and deepen, these commitments. 

I live in archives and libraries, constantly encountering materials that surprise me and move me. Years ago I began keeping a spreadsheet of the gems I found, and eventually started cutting small experiments. That process grew into Also Resisters. Editing has become the heart of my practice—the challenge of assembling disparate fragments into something whole is endlessly compelling to me. I love it. 

Because I come to filmmaking with what might seem like a random, patchwork background—dancer, journalist, academic, activist—it may not make sense on paper. But when I sit down to edit, it really clicks. For me, filmmaking is a way of locating myself and others in our complex, confusing, joyous, and heartbreaking world. It’s a way to feel less lonely when we’re puzzling the big questions and trying to metabolize a world that often doesn’t make any sense. Today, I see myself as an artist who is equally devoted to the archive, to writing, to dance, to political organizing, and to my friends.

Tell us about the genesis of Also Resisters. Where did the idea come from and how did you develop it?

The film began with a book I stumbled upon: We’ve Been Invaded by the 21st Century, a 1968 collection of political essays by the American socialist and nonviolence activist David McReynolds. I fell in love with his voice—flawed but deeply moral, incisive, and resonant with my own experience of being politicized by living in the heart of the very violent and undemocratic empire called America. For David, it was the American war in Vietnam; for me, it has been Israel’s genocide in Palestine. He was a twenty-something in New York protesting daily; I was a twenty-something in New York protesting nightly. Reading his work was a way of locating my grief and rage in that of another generation.

While researching David, I discovered Googling him one day that he was also a gifted photographer. I found a website showcasing his images and sent over a message to the email listed asking about the archive. Then something totally odd happened. A woman named Ruth responded – she is an activist and an old friend of David’s who worked for many years with him at the War Resisters League. It turns out that Ruth holds his archive and lives just blocks from my old home in Brooklyn. She invited me over to her house the next day. That encounter sparked one of the most extraordinary friendships of my life with Ruth and her husband Ed, both longtime activists. I spent much of 2023 and 2024 sprawled across their living room floor, sifting through David’s images while having the most incredible conversations about politics, war resistance, cats, art, love, and everything in between. They are still dear friends and when I go back to New York for DOC NYC this November, they’re among the people I am most excited to catch up with. 

At first, I imagined the film might be biographical. I even spent time at David’s archive at Swarthmore College as a research fellow. But gradually it became clear that what I wanted to explore was solidarity, especially intergenerational solidarity. So I returned to the essay that first drew me in. My best friend Sonia – who is also the greatest artist I know – recorded herself reading a passage, and I began cutting archival footage to her voice. The first sequence I assembled became the center of the film, and it’s remained virtually unchanged since.

The film is ultimately about how young people locate themselves in histories of resistance—because David believed, rightly I think, that young people not only have a strong moral compass but act on it. That belief runs through the film’s images and sounds. And actually, I should mention that all of the images at the end of student protests are photographs taken by other student photographers.

What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making also resisters and how did you overcome them? 

Audio turnover. Honestly, audio turnover is excruciating. I watched probably dozens of YouTube tutorials and phoned my best friend Elisa, who’s an incredible editor, whenever I got stuck.

The bigger, recurring obstacle was the research itself. When you’re working with archives, the temptation is to never stop—there’s always one more box, one more reel. Part of the discipline is knowing when to step away and start shaping what you already have.

I’m drawn to archival footage precisely because it forces us to confront what we’ve inherited. The archive is both a repository of history and a technology of power. I’m always asking: What do we do with these materials? How do they locate us in history, materially and emotionally? How do images make us confront our complicity within structures of violence and resistance?

For me, it isn’t about making new images but about resurfacing existing ones and asking what they mean in our present. It’s about using images as a site of power analysis: what’s inside the frame, and just as importantly, what lies outside it—the institutions, money, and politics that shape what we see. That’s also why the Department of Defense footage is so interesting to me. It is shocking and dizzying to see these young men running around with really nice government issued cameras filming mundane things, but also literally filming their participation in war crimes. 

Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights and/or online release.

The film premiered at Big Sky in February 2025, just weeks after a really big life rupture. Standing on stage during the Q&A, experiencing an audience engage with this piece of my heart and mind, really reminded me what cinema is all about: the desire to be moved and to exchange these fragments of our humanity. It marked the beginning of a year of wild connection, of returning to myself by opening up to others.

One highlight was screening in Sarajevo. Afterward, a young activist and filmmaker approached me. We went for coffee the next day and talked about her studies, growing up in the Balkans, and why art is so central to resistance. That conversation remains one of the most meaningful parts of this whole journey.

Cinema, at its best, is resistance to apathy. In a world that numbs and pacifies us, film insists on feeling—on mobilizing our emotions toward solidarity. The process is necessarily vulnerable, and that’s what makes it so precious.

What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?

Watch everything you can. Cultivate deep, beautiful friendships with other artists—these are the most sustaining relationships in life. Stop judging yourself. And always keep your heart on your sleeve. That, to me, feels like the most important thing. 

Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?

• Scenes of Extraction by Sanaz Sohrabi

• Soundtrack for a Coup d’État by Johan Grimonprez

• My Name Is Oil by Igor Smola (I’m working on a new project about oil, so I’ve been immersed in these works)

• Everything by Agnès Varda, Chris Marker, RaMell Ross, Elizabeth Lo, and Sierra Pettengill

And one reading recommendation: Hanif Abdurraqib. He recently quoted Lester Bangs writing about Richard Hell in 1977: “The only questions worth asking today are whether humans are going to have any emotions tomorrow and what the quality of life will be if the answer is no.”

That line has stayed with me. As Hanif puts it, the work—whether art, writing, or filmmaking—only matters if it deepens our solidarity and our friendships. If your heart isn’t growing, it’s atrophying. And once it atrophies, it’s nearly impossible to retrieve.

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Milking The Dog

Directed by joe murphy

Produced BY joe murphy & Clare McCahery

Phil Rochester battles to conquer Manchester's toughest standup contest, revealing the relentless drive of an artist to perform - even when he's not thanked by audiences for doing so.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Joe Murphy is a filmmaker based in the North West of England. He directed his first short documentary in 2024, which was a finalist at the BIFA-qualifying Kino London Short Film Festival and won Best Documentary at both the Shared Visions Film Festival and the Gloucester Independent Film Festival. With an early background in comedy, his focus has shifted towards intimate, character-driven documentaries, maintaining an eye for the small moments of humour in otherwise dark and challenging circumstances. 

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH JOE

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Welcome to our Short of the Week series. Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background.

I originally started out as a teenager focused on comedy. I created an online sketch show with a couple of friends who were kind enough to perform in it, and I was surprised to find that some (I’ll reiterate—some) people actually thought it was funny. That gave me a bit of confidence when it came to writing and directing.

I ended up falling in love with documentary at university. One thing I hadn’t really understood before was that direct cinema often includes funny moments, even if the overall tone of the film is more serious. People tend to be quite funny in their daily lives without even realising it.

Milking the Dog is my first “real” film after graduating in 2020 - and my first-ever documentary. So, to me, it made sense to follow a story with comedy baked into its DNA. That familiarity helped when it came to the pacing and editing of a scene, and it gave me room to experiment and start figuring out my tone of voice.

Tell us about the genesis of Milking the Dog. Where did the idea come from and how did you develop that idea into the short that's now made its way out into the world?

In 2018 I was shooting b-roll for a student film about a brutal gong show in Manchester. Phil happened to be performing that night. After a short and rough set, we grabbed a quick backstage interview - only for Phil to ignore every question and launch into a wild story about performing at a pub where a man milking a dog stole the spotlight. The footage was totally unusable for that project, but in 2023 I finally reconnected with Phil and began making a film centred entirely around him - he’s definitely not a side character in someone else’s story.

As a filmmaker, I was drawn to rejection as a central theme. It’s a universal part of life that everyone experiences, and as a creative, you quickly learn it's part of the process. Stand-up comedy, in particular, offers the most immediate and unforgiving feedback - you get a laugh, a heckle, or silence. There’s no hiding from it. I wanted to make a film about someone who embraces that, and Phil is exactly that person. He creates for himself - not necessarily to “make it” as a comedian, but simply because he loves being on stage. That kind of drive is rare and admirable.

What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making Milking the Dog and how did you overcome them? 

The obstacles were mostly logistical - the film had the budget of a ham sandwich, like most indie projects. The only real way to overcome that was by massively scaling down the production - which, in the end, I think really benefited the film. One thing the low budget taught me is that you can make a documentary with just two people, as long as the director is comfortable handling sound. It actually helps the people that you're filming feel more relaxed and open, which leads to better and more honest material.

The real creative obstacle was making sure the film never strayed into exploitation. It would’ve been easy - and boring - to make a cringe comedy by just following a stand-up around and laughing at them bombing. I think the only way to avoid that is by never losing sight of the humanity of the person you're filming. Phil is one of the kindest people I've met, and I felt that as long as I conveyed that - and reflected some of our relationship within the narrative - we could steer clear of it becoming a cynical piss-take.

Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights and/or online release.

I first screened the film for friends and family - including Phil, who showed up with a bin bag over his head to avoid drawing attention to himself. My main goal was simply to share the film with as many audiences as possible. I submitted it to just a handful of festivals, hoping one might be interested. The response has blown me away - it’s been accepted into far more than I expected, including making the finals at Kino, which felt surreal. Since it leans into comedy, watching it with live audiences has been fantastic - people’s laughter tends to grow as the film progresses, which I take as a sign they’re warming to Phil.

One of my favourite memories is when I first sent the film to Phil. I woke up to three missed calls and a message - he’d planned to terrify me by pretending to be furious about how he was portrayed, before admitting he actually really liked it. A lot of the shoot was like that: Phil constantly trying to wind me up.

What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?

I feel like a fraud handing out any advice, as Milking the Dog is my first film, and I’ve learned so much from others at the various festivals I’ve been lucky enough to attend. I guess my main advice is to always focus on the story first and spectacle second - something that is attainable - and then frame the superficial stuff around it; otherwise, you could end up losing a lot of money. Taking a break from the film for a few weeks at a time usually helps me look at it in a fresh way and stops me from going crazy reviewing the same material constantly.

Also, befriend someone really rich and trick them into funding your film. I’m still searching for my sugar daddy.

Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?

Streetwise (1984), directed by Martin Bell, is an absolute masterclass in documentary filmmaking. It follows a group of kids in Seattle who survive by selling drugs or partaking in sex work. The film conveys deep empathy without shying away from the harsh realities they face. The fact it was shot on film blows my mind, it must have been a logistical nightmare. It also just looks beautiful and serves as a powerful time capsule of 1980s America.

Crumb (1994) is an insane documentary. It follows Robert Crumb, who is a super controversial American artist, and to me, the whole thing plays like a repulsive stream of consciousness that perfectly matches the tone of Crumb's grotesque cartoons. A fantastic documentary about a collection of people I hope I never have to meet.

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Plop

Directed & PRODUCED DARIUS SHU

WRITTEN by ARRON BLAKE

A desperate woman from the society of rejected singles, known as the Leftovers, takes a bold leap of faith on a revolutionary new dating app, risking everything for one last chance at love.

about the film

PLOP premiered in competition at the Manchester Film Festival 2025. Other festival highlights include the BIFA qualifying Sunrise Film Festival & Brighton Rocks Film Festival. Plop also played at SCI-FI London, Clapham International Film Festival, Big Fridge International Film Festival and it was a Semi-Finalist at our very own Kino Short Film Festival earlier this year.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Darius Shu is a writer-director drawn to humanistic, emotionally resonant stories told through a visually poetic lens. His work often centres on underrepresented voices and overlooked narratives.

A passionate advocate for Asian and LGBTQIA+ representation in cinema, Darius is committed to using film as a catalyst for meaningful dialogue and cultural progress. His stories aim to create space, for reflection, visibility, and connection.

Darius made his directorial debut with His Hands (2019), a silent psychological drama nominated for Best Narrative Short at the Tribeca Festival 2019. He followed this with I Am Norman (2021), a fictional documentary thriller which premiered at the Oscar-qualifying Rhode Island International Film Festival. His latest short film PLOP (2025) premiered In Competition at the Manchester Film Festival and has screened at Picturehouse Finsbury Park, with selections at over five BAFTA/BIFA-qualifying festivals.

With over nine years of experience as a cinematographer, Darius has shot a wide range of acclaimed projects, including the BAFTA-nominated film Always, Asifa (2023), the Netflix documentary Peach Paradise (2022), Queer Parivaar (2022), Where We Came From (2024) starring Archie Panjabi, Cuddle (2026) featuring Mark Gatiss and served as 2nd Unit DOP on the feature film Last Days, directed by Justin Lin (Fast & Furious franchise, Star Trek Beyond) which world premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2025. He shot his first feature 'Slim', directed by Sky Yang and produced by Chi Thai.

Through his work, Darius continues to push the boundaries of independent film while championing stories that challenge, heal, and humanise.

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH darius

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Welcome to our Short of the Week series. Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background.

Thank you so much for having me and for spotlighting PLOP. I’m Darius Shu, a director and cinematographer based in London. I'm drawn to stories that explore the existential questions of identity, humanity, connection and the social constructs that shape our lives. I'm always fascinated to create something fresh out of something ordinary, to have my characters deal with the presence of anxiety, and be morally ambiguous. My background started in cinematography and have been a DP for 9 years, where I learnt how to build moods and emotion visually, and over the years that naturally led me into directing and storytelling. I like to blend social awareness with a touch of surrealism, creating films that feel both emotionally grounded and a little poetic. At the heart of it, I’m just obsessed with cinema’s ability to connect people and spark conversations. 

Tell us about the genesis of Plop. Where did the idea come from and how did you develop that idea into the short that's now made its way out into the world?

My writer and actor, Arron Blake, pitched me a story he’d been developing, one I knew could really surprise and challenge audiences. I’ve always wanted to make a sci-fi film, being a huge fan of shows like Star Trek and Black Mirror, so I thought, why not take his concept and set it within a dystopian world? Finally getting the chance to bring that vision to life was incredibly exciting. The idea came from observing the absurdity and vulnerability of modern dating, one we both relate and is really fed up of...the endless swiping, algorithms, and the curated personas we present to the world. I wanted to see what happens when these societal constructs collide with our raw, unfiltered desire to be loved and accepted for who we truly are.

In the story, we disguise this in the app’s unconventional way of assessing compatibility which pushes people to confront their most honest, primal selves. The Leftovers aren’t just single people, they represent anyone who has ever felt rejected, outcast, or unworthy. Through the protagonist’s journey, we get a world where societal expectations clash with personal desires, and humour helps highlight the awkwardness, fears, and hopes that come with love and rejection on a first date. Developing Plop meant blending genres to feel fresh, using a sci-fi backdrop to exaggerate societal norms while keeping the emotions grounded, awkward, and relatable. At its heart, it’s about relationships, human connection, and navigating the modern world of AI and dating in a way that hopefully sparks both reflection and conversation.

What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making Plop and how did you overcome them? 

One of the biggest challenges with making Plop was juggling the sci-fi elements while keeping the human emotion grounded and awkwardly relatable. I wanted a world that looked heightened and visually striking, but with characters who still felt like real people stumbling through life and love. Another hurdle was the logistics of creating a dystopian world on a short film shoestring budget… because let’s face it, sci-fi is expensive, and our budget definitely wasn’t.

We got creative with production design, most of the story is in a single room, so we had to make it feel engaging without breaking the bank. A mix of practical and simple VFX, clever camera work, lighting, and little details helped make the world feel bigger than it actually was. Working closely with Joanna and Arron was crucial, we were constantly bouncing ideas off each other, improvising on set, and not afraid to scrap or tweak things in the moment.

In the end, all these obstacles forced us to be more inventive, and honestly, it made the process way more fun. I think that energy and chaos comes through on screen and maybe a little of our stress too! 

Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights and/or online release.

The festival circuit has been amazing, we had our world premiere at Manchester Film Festival and 3 other BIFA qualifying festivals. It’s been so rewarding to see how audiences react in real time, especially when they laugh, cringe, or feel moved by the characters’ awkward, relatable moments.

Every film I make leaves room for interpretation and I like giving people the chance to come up with wildly different takes on the story’s metaphors, symbolism and concept. Honestly, sometimes I listen to someone’s interpretation and think, “Wow… I didn’t even notice that!", or "That was darker than what I had in mind" and at times "You're spot on, you just said exactly what I had in mind". Meeting fellow filmmakers and audiences who really get the world we were trying to create has been amazing. But the absolute best part of Plop? Watching it spark conversations about connection, dating, and human vulnerability… and realising that, just like my characters, people are awkward, confused, and completely winging it when it comes to love. Makes me feel a little less alone, and hopefully makes them laugh too, because in the world we are living now, we just have to have some laughs in our lives.

What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?

My biggest advice? Embrace the chaos. Short films are tiny worlds with tiny budgets, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make them look beautiful. Be creative, flexible, and a little fearless. Use your limitations as an advantage, turn a one-room set into a whole universe, and don’t be afraid to improvise on set. Feed your crew good food, happy people make better films. And most importantly, don’t take yourself too seriously; if you can laugh at your mistakes, the audience probably will too.

Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?

Might be a completely different genre but I really love Monster by Hirokazu Kore-eda

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Busy

WRITTEN & PRODUCED Megan Smith

Directed by jANE MORIARTY

Emma-Leigh and her friends decide to put their next date in the diary, but it proves harder than they anticipate.

about the film

BUSY screened earlier this year at our BIFA Qualifying Kino London Short Film Festival. Additionally it’s played at Brighton Rocks Film Festival & Spirit of Independence Film Festival, both also BIFA qualifiers.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Jane Moriarty is a theatre and film director, working in the UK and Ireland. Jane directed SHUSH, a 25-minute drama produced by Charmer Pictures for RTÉ, written by and starring Liv O’Donoghue. It can be streamed on the RTE Player.  Jane’s debut short film KITCHEN TALES, is now featured on BFI Player Her second film, I CALLED YOU, recently screened at the IFTA and BAFTA-qualifying IndieCork Film Festival.  Jane was the Rehearsal Director for Sky comedy-drama series THE LOVERS, working with the lead cast prior to filming and during production. And she was a voice and performance director on the BAFTA-winning video game, BALDUR’S GATE 3. Jane was awarded the Young Directors Silver Screen Award 2025 for SHUSH.

Megan Smith is an actor, writer and producer for theatre and film. Megan's latest film BUSY, has qualified for BIFA 2025.. Her other comedy films received international recognition. SURGEONS (2021 ) was selected for BAFTA qualifying Bolton Film Festival and won 6 awards. BEST FRIENDS (2020) won 9 film festival awards. Other producing credits include I CALLED YOU AND ROBOT LADY. Megan is currently producing FROG, a short film written by Rebecca Crookshank about IVF, to be filmed later this year. 

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH MEGAN

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Tell us about the genesis of Busy. Where did the idea come from and how did you develop that idea into the short that's now made its way out into the world?

Busy came after I observed several conversations with friends. I noticed people were very quick to make out I was the busiest person in the room, or that I had to send dates to find a time to meetup, but when it came down to it, everyone was actually as busy as each other. We all have different commitments in our lives, albeit children, family, work or selfcare, but sometimes it's easy to see yourself as the least busy because then you're not the problem. I thought it would be funny to have a double ending, just to show it wasn't about being mean. I talked about the idea for a while. to gauge the connectivity, and if other people would relate, and then I wrote the script very quickly and then went about trying to get it made.

What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making Busy and how did you overcome them?

As with many films, we were constrained by budget and scheduling. We used a minimal crew and an empty location (pub was closed!) to make sure we could get the most out of the day.

Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights and/or online release.

Hearing BUSY with a live audience for the first time was amazing, as you could slowly hear the slow reveal being realised by the audience. Making people laugh, who you don't know, is the best thing in the world.

What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?

Work with people who are as caring and enthusiastic as you are.

Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?

Check out SHUSH by our very own talented Jane Moriarty. 

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Interested in getting your work selected as Short of the Week?

Sherbet

WRITTEN & Directed by Danny Gibbons

PRODUCED BY Charles Meunier

Co-PRODUCEr Eduard Mitra

Set entirely inside the confines of a taxi cab, on what seems like just another late-night taxi fare, this particular trip is anything but, altering the course of the lives of both driver and rider forever.

One evening 15-year-old Isa enters Rene's cab and his life. At first, he perceives her as just another annoying 'woke' teenager on what he hoped was another simple and quiet journey, but as a revelation about Isa's situation comes to light, this goes from a dime-a-dozen taxi fare to a life-changing experience that forces Rene to confront things in his life that he has been running from for the longest time.

ABOUT THE FILM

Sherbet won Best Director at the BIFA Qualifying Brighton Rocks where it was also the runner up for Best Drama. Other notable festival awards include Best Makeup at the BIFA Qualifying Unrestricted View Film Festival (where India Brown was also Runner Up for Best Performance), the Emerging Talent award and Best Actress at New Renaissance Film Festival, and Best Cinematrography & Best Coulourist at the Wolverhampton Film. It also won the Audience Choice award at Film Tottenham.

Other notable festival screenings include theNorthampton Film Festival, Beeston Film Festival, Sunrise Film Festival, Mansfield Town, Romford Film, and Poppy Jasper.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Born and raised in the East Midlands, Danny Gibbons has what many would call a 'late' start in the industry, not making his first short film until the age of 27. Taking a creative look at the less publicised emotional abuse, Danny quickly finds success on the festival circuit with his debut short film Mark’d, winning the one-off Warner Brothers Short Film Festival, with Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech, Les Misérables) calling it a "powerful and visceral physicalisation of a very real issue". Mark’d goes on to amass over 1.4 million views online across all platforms and is included in dozens of Domestic Violence Resource packs across the UK.

Danny’s next short, Last Dance, is a psychological horror that plays with the horror trope of a monster lurking in the shadows, but with the twist of incorporating current real-world issues. The film has a very successful festival run, being selected and winning awards worldwide, including the Melies D’Argent at Razorreel Film Festival and culminating with the Melies D’Or for Best European Short Film at the prestigious Sitges Film Festival in 2021.

In 2024, Danny releases Sherbet, starring Jay Simpson (Chernobyl (2019), Blitz (2024)) and India Brown (Invasion (2021–), That Christmas (2024)). The film screens worldwide, winning several awards including Best Director at the BIFA-Qualifying Brighton Rocks and “Best Emerging Talent” at the New Renaissance Film Festival.

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH Danny

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Welcome to our Short of the Week series. Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background.

Much like everyone else chasing the filmmaking dream, I fell in love with films from a very early age, they were worlds I loved getting lost in and they fed my wild imagination that I had as a child. I used to think I wanted to be an actor, and I pursued that for a while with varied levels of success, but it wasn’t until I was in my mid twenties that I pivoted and decided to give the behind the camera side of things a go. So I went back to university as a “mature student” and learned the craft of filmmaking. It was there I made Mark’d, a short, which was an experimental look and physicalisation of emotional abuse. Somehow the short went viral and amassed over 1.5 Million views across all platforms, which are rookie numbers now for social media but back then it was pretty substantial and set me up quite nicely going forward into my next short ‘Last Dance’, a horror which won the Méliès d'Argent at Razor Reel Flanders Film Festival and ultimately went on to win the prestigious Méliès d'Or at Sitges Film Festival. Sherbet is my third and follow up short. 

Tell us about the genesis of Sherbet. Where did the idea come from and how did you develop that idea into the short that's now made its way out into the world?

What a great question. The genesis of Sherbet sort of came about from a multitude of different avenues for me, three in particular, so please stick with me. The first one being I have always been fascinated with the taxi driver and passenger dynamic, anyone who has ridden for a long time in a cab can attest to  the unique conversation that can take place within the confines of the cab, and it’s something that won’t be around forever with  market of self driving cars growing. It’s also a familiar and relatable concept to set a story in.  

The second one being that about the time I conceptualised Sherbet I was in a bit of a slump, with running the risk of sounding super pretentious, I was basically the embodiment of both Rene and Isa. I was in my thirties and I hadn’t had the success that younger me had planned, everyone around me was getting promotions in their jobs, getting married, having children and I was angry and bitter for a while that it wasn’t fair, and contemplated quitting. I felt stuck, but that dreamer in me remained. The hunger and passion for it remained, so it was this inner turmoil that I battled with for a while and Rene and Isa were sort of born from that. 

The final ingredient in the sherbet conceptualisation was actually a specific experience I had in a taxi one evening. I had just screened Mark’d at Pinewood Studios and I was getting a cab home. The driver, obviously curious why he was picking me up from Pinewood enquired about myself and ultimately Mark’d. He asked if he could watch it, and thinking he was just being polite, I nonchalantly told him where he could find it online and we quickly moved on. About a week later I got an email from a name I didn’t recognise, and it so turns out that the taxi driver had in fact watched the film, and had emailed me to tell me that after watching it he had recognised some traits of emotional abuse in his own marriage and that the short film was an eye opener for him and it was going to change his life. I often wonder if it ever did, but it made me realise that the most innocuous of conversations/interaction with strangers can change the course of either person's trajectory and that is one of the central themes of Sherbet.

What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making Sherbet and how did you overcome them? 

As with making any short film, the first obstacle to overcome is always…money. You’d think with it just being two characters in one location, it’s quite contained and cheap, but my producers hated me, it’s never cheap. Especially if you want to make it to a professional standard. We were in a unique position that while it was a singular location, our singular location was a moving one. So outside of money, our biggest obstacle was ‘how do we do this, and do it well?’. 

A moving car is so hard to shoot in, it’s risky and if you do it through all the legal channels it’s expensive, so we quickly ruled that out. I have also never been a fan of green screens when it comes to moving car scenes, the light just never looks natural and there is always an artificial look to it all. The future is definitely Virtual Production walls, and we explored this option, but you are talking thousands of pounds per day, which we just couldn’t afford, so we had to get creative and think outside the box. Firstly we established what the technology was from a hardware point of view, just huge TV's, right? So we decided to rent three large TV's instead, and pair it with a software largely used on high end sets for video playback, called QTAKE, and ran our own driving plates that we’d shot through that to the TV's, essentially creating our own smaller Virtual Production volume wall. I’m biased but I think it worked well for a fraction of the cost.

WATCH THE MAKING OF “SHERBET“

Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights and/or online release.

I have to be honest, the journey through the festival circuit in many ways is my least favourite part of the whole process. It’s the first time you’re not really in control of your own films fate. We knew that having a twenty-three minute short was going to hinder us and be an uphill battle in some ways, but we believed its quality would shine through in the long run. I know it’s quite a controversial take, but I’m also not the biggest fan of sitting in a cinema and watching my own work play out in front of a live audience. Saying that, Sherbet’s festival run was ultimately a good one and I consider it a success. We went up and down the country with it, met some amazing people along the way and got lots of lovely laurels for our poster which is the true barometer of one’s worth, right? I kid. Seriously though, winning Best Director at Brighton Rocks, and the Best Emerging Talent Award at New Renaissance Film Festival where the prize was £1000 were particular highlights, because short films NEVER make money so that’s always nice. Now the film is out in the world for everyone to watch, enjoy, critique, and the response from everyone that has seen it has genuinely been amazing, and I am super happy and content with Sherbet’s life cycle and it’s one that I’m truly proud of. 

What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?

I’ll double down on what I said above, if you’re going to shoot a moving car scene, and consider the technique above as a ‘hack’. I don’t know if I’m allowed to advertise here, but we did a masterclass for British Cinematographer where we break down how we pulled it off, which I think is worth checking out, but I’m biased. Or I'm more than happy for people to reach out to me with questions. I guess as a broader statement, what I’m trying to say is, and I don’t want to sound too preachy here, but don’t let people dictate you or price you out of making your film. So many people will tell you it’s not possible, or it’s too ambitious, or it won’t work, but if you know it will, find a way to do it anyway. It’s not enough to be a good storyteller these days, you need to be a good problem solver too, an ability to pivot, think outside the box, and find a way. Don’t wait for permission. 

Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?

Well if you’re here watching Sherbet, and you enjoy this sort of thing, I’ll try and keep it within theme, and it would be amiss of me not to recommend a film that heavily inspired me/it, which is Locke. It always surprises me the amount of people who haven’t seen it, a concept you think can’t/shouldn’t work, but it’s truly a grounded and gripping piece of cinema, is a captivating watch, and comes with a phenomenal performance from Tom Hardy. 

Congrats on winning the Kino Short Film Fund with your next project. Can you give us a sneak peek?

Thank you very much. We’re very grateful and very excited to be working with Kino on our next short, Pushing Daisy. It’s a zainy, genre bending short set largely in a morgue that blends sitcom and drama. It follows Daisy, a seemingly buoyant mortician as she navigates an offbeat world of sitcom absurdity and somber reality as she grapples with her own unresolved trauma when her late husband’s mistress ends up on her slab. It’s such a stark contrast from Sherbet, (but somehow explores some of the same themes?) its wildly ambitious and if I’m being completely honest, the challenge of pulling it off scares me, which is usually a good indicator that we’re on the right path, so we’re super excited to get it made. 

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P is for Penis

WRITTEN, PRODUCED & Directed by joe mcgowan

An overdue catch up down the pub between two old friends is thrown into chaos by the inclusion of a terrifying third wheel with an embarrassing secret.

about the film

P is for Penis was a Semi-Finalist at our BIFA qualifying Kino London Short Film Festival in 2024. It also won the Audience Choice award at the BIFA Qualifying Exit 6 Film Festival. Other notable festival highlights include the BIFA Qualifying Sunderland Short Film Festival and The Shortest Nights, The Romford Film Festival, London Lift-Off Film Festival, and the Funny Life Film Festival where it was nominated for Best Screenplay. Other awards include Best Micro Short and Best British Film at the Lit Laughs International Comedy Film Festival, Best Comedy Film at the WILDsound FEEDBACK Film & Screenplay Festival, Best Comedy Short at the London Seasonal Short Film Festival, and Best UK Comedy at the London Worldwide Comedy Short Film Festival.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Joe is a London born and Essex-raised filmmaker with over ten years of experience as a director and editor in the TV commercial and branded content world. Comedy caught his eyes and ears at a young age, listening to Blackadder cassette tapes late into the night and being shattered for school the next day. His love of comedy and passion for filmmaking allow him to explore the funny, silly, and absurd and have an absolute blast doing so! Joe’s comedy work has racked up millions of views across social media, won numerous awards at film festivals in the UK and internationally, and has been featured on BBC Radio. Not bad for an Essex boy!

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH Joe

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Welcome back to our Short of the Week series. What have you been up to since we featured your last short Couple Noises ?

Thanks for having me back! It’s been a busy year for me. Have been up and down the country on the festival run with P is for Penis, have worked with British comedy legends Kimberly Nixon (Fresh Meat) and Simon Greenall (I’m Alan Partridge) on some training videos for a company set up by John Cleese in the 1980’s, worked with Kelly Brooke and Big Narstie on a campaign for SlimFast, and most importantly got married in June. How time flies!

Tell us about the genesis of P Is For Penis. Where did the idea come from, and how did you develop that idea into the short that's now made its way out into the world?

My end goal is to work in sitcoms, so I treated this as practice in creating a scene that you’d expect to see in a sitcom show. Comedy and conflict are my happy place when watching films or TV shows, and I’ve always found the dynamic of someone oversharing a secret about another person in a social setting a great setting for some real comedic sparks to fly.

I don’t know exactly how I landed on a misshapen penis being somebody's deepest and darkest secret, but once I thought of it the ball started rolling from there. The big question was what peculiar shape could it be to create a double-take moment in the film, but also lead to some snappy jokes for the script. I was in the car with my wife (who was my girlfriend at the time) and was brainstorming this out loud to her. I started going through shape options like a square, a triangle, a parallelogram, before moving onto letters from the alphabet. I thought a lower-case ‘T’ would be funny and said that a ‘T’ with two O’s from the testicles would spell the word ‘Too’, and maybe there’s a joke there. My wife, who this isn’t her sense of humour at all, turned to me and said ‘Well, if his penis was shaped like the letter ‘P’, it would spell the word ‘Poo’. I simply looked at her adoringly and said I love you so much, and quickly came up with the title after she said that. I started writing it in December 2023, and by March 2024, the film was done and dusted, and I proposed to my wife to be! 

What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making P Is For Penis and how did you overcome them? 

The main challenge was time. I hired a pub called The Virgin Queen in Bethnal Green for eight hours, 7am-3pm. The pub opened at 4pm and the script was 13 pages long. I had originally planned some more cinematic shots with a dolly and track, some fun POV shots with a fish eye lens, and a dramatic lighting change when Perry realises Tim and Dom know about his appendage. Very quickly into the shoot, those bells and whistles were cut. We were shooting on two cameras (thank God), and we locked them off and cross-shot all the coverage. It still has that sitcom feel to it that I wanted, but it also comes across as an extended sketch rather than a cinematic short film, like I’d originally intended. It was a big lesson in what you can realistically achieve with a tight turnaround.

The other challenge was shooting the nudity. The pub was fine with it as long as we covered the windows so the public couldn’t see anything. The problem with that was that the windows had no curtains, and there were a lot of windows. When it came to shooting those shots, we used an old trick I’d learnt from a gaffer to block light out quickly from windows. We sprayed the windows with window cleaner from a spray bottle and stuck sheets of tin foil on them. Took fifteen minutes to block out all the windows with the whole crew on board. Would highly recommend this method if you’re in a pinch.

Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights.

Sitting in an audience when P is for Penis is screening has been a real treat. Overall, it’s had a fantastic reception and get’s lot of laughs, which, as the writer, director, producer, and editor of the film, is amazing to hear live. It’s become a BIFA qualifying short, been played on BBC Radio as a radio sketch, and won multiple awards at film festivals. The highlight on the festival circuit was winning the Audience Choice awards at the BIFA Qualifying Exit 6 Film Festival. The films that were winning all the awards were incredibly cinematic films, with heavy subject matters, and had funding from the BFI and other film funding outlets. To see my self-funded short about a maniac with a funny shaped knob standing with these juggernaughts in the short film world was very gratifying for me.

Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?

‘Bad Thoughts’, Tom Segura’s Netflix sketch show, is a must watch for any twisted sickos like myself. If you like my film, this is a show you need to check out.

I’d like to recommend some short films I’ve seen over the last year that stood out to me. James Button’s latest absurd short, ‘The Quackening’, is a must see. Twenty minutes of non-stop madness and big laughs. ‘Daddy Superior’, directed by Benjamin Partridge. Such a wholesome and hilarious masterpiece of a short film. This is the perfect small cast and one location comedy short. ‘Us & In Between’ directed by Katia Shannon. A wonderful, heartwarming tale of two people finding love in their later years. Beautifully shot too.

What are you working on next?

Earlier this year, I directed a National Film & Television School comedy short called Pushing Up Plastic. Set in the near future, a couple finds out their microplastic test results from their solicitor to see if they can be legally buried without becoming an environmental hazard, or risk being recycled. It’s got a Wes Anderson meets Edgar Wright aesthetic to it, and it's been a lot of fun to work on. It should be on the film festival circuit next year.

I’m slowly writing a short mockumentary called Good Egg, which revolves around an omelette chef who works in a Chinese restaurant, so he rarely has anything to do. I’m also writing a sitcom pilot that’s a mash up of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia meets Lord of the Rings.

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Freedom to be alone

WRITTEN & Directed by Alexandre Laurent

Produced BY Maël Hajos

Jade opens up through a poem, sharing her story of an intense relationship with a former lover, marked by a toxic hold fuelled by stereotypes and the societal pressure to avoid being alone. Their breakup, far from being a tragic end, becomes a liberation a journey back to herself where solitude emerges as a soothing and healing remedy.

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH ALEXANDRE

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Welcome to our Short of the Week series. Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background.

I've been working in film for seven years now as a director/cinematographer. I was a first assistant for three years, then I became a director of photography by chance. This is my very first real project as a director, a subject that has been close to my heart for a long time.

Tell us about the genesis of Freedom to be alone and your motivation for making this film.

I have had various experiences in life, which have led me to a certain clarity about energies. In this short film, I tell the story through a poem about karmic bonds, using the image of a ball of yarn to symbolize these ties, interpreted with the sensitivity of a woman. I explore what can be resolved by emerging from these very powerful relationships.

The idea came to me while listening to music mainly, then there were the inspirations of directors that I followed like Théo le Sourd I like his work, but also the different experiences and revelations that I had during my filming, I had my vision like all directors of photography and I wanted to give a cinematographic interpretation to the story.

What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making Freedom to be alone and how did you overcome them? 

We had a small budget and had a lot of constraints, and then a lot of concessions, which allowed me to open my eyes to certain aspects of production. And the importance of having a team you can count on.

What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?

I advise the young director to give himself time to do things, even if there are many budgetary constraints, and then to have a trustworthy and competent team where communication reigns.

Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?

- Baby Bright by Oscar Keys

- Sometimes / Wonder by Theo le sourd

What are you working on next?

Right now I'm working on a feature film called "The Lemon Life" I'm going to adapt it into a short film to approach production companies and then make a film

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Interested in getting your work selected as Short of the Week?