wet look
Channel 4, 30’
I’m a winner of this year’s 4Stories commission – my half-hour film is now streaming on Channel 4. It’s a mermaid story about finding yourself all of a sudden in a body that won’t do what you want it to, and I am in it as a silent barman – here I am behind Tanya Reynolds and Iwan Rheon. The Guardian called it ‘sweet and smart’ and The Times said it ‘cleverly used [mermaid lore] as a metaphor for disability…an imaginative way to make the able-bodied person think’ ★★★★ (more here)
director lab
BFI Network
I was one of eight emerging (love to emerge) directors selected for this BFI Network lab at BFS – it was a nice time (more here)
respectability
Six week fellowship in LA
I recently spent six weeks in LA where I was the first UK fellow on RespectAbility’s talent lab – my trip was funded by the British Council and I wrote a blog for them about my experience, w some 35mm pics taken on film ruined by airport CT scanners (more here)
not in things but in between
1’30 4:3 VHS
VHS collage film commissioned as part of the BBC’s centenary celebrations w Make Film History, screening at Bertha DocHouse, festival premiere at Encounters as part of DepicT (more here)
going off into mysteries
1’30 1.37:1 16mm
A portrait film about collaboration and chance, aka our only escapes from mortal dread. This is the recipe: first, capture a chef (here we have Thom Eagle); the chef will forage wild sea herbs; the chef will pickle half the herbs in their own water; make the other half into a developer to process your film; pickle your processed film with the first half of the herbs. (more here)
the great dog, pan
9’ 1.66:1 16mm/digital
The lead commission for Film and Video Umbrella’s second Beyond awards, a short film about living w things – panic and animals in particular. Shot in two continuous long takes w cuts between dictated by the performer, and using 16mm hand-processed in foraged elderberries (more here)
y2k xxx
1’ 4:3 VHS
A very polite teenage boy sold me his dad’s VHS camera and it came w a tape marked ‘HAM’ inside, full to the brim of 90s porn – I taped this small film over it. Written w the cast as we went along (more here)
the great dog, pan (play)
Bristol Old Vic, Pleasance Islington
A monologue about a woman’s mystic relationship w her therapy dog (the audience are the dog). Developed as part of my attachment at Bristol Old Vic, supported by the Peggy Ramsay Foundation and Ronald Duncan Prize (more here)
round round baby round round
6’ (looping) 1.37:1 digital
A difficult conversation designed to loop seamlessly and imperceptibly: an endless buffer. One of ten installations at Alchemy Film & Moving Image 2021, curators of Scotland’s entry to the Venice Biennale, and a linear cut won Best Debut at Papaya Films (more here)
an independent film with a strong female lead
Camden People’s Theatre
I had an idea for a performance that is filmed by the audience on their phone and which I then edit into a film, and it seemed like a good frame for a story Josephine Starte wanted to tell about her experiences as a young actress – so we put this together, and then the pandemic happened and it was cancelled (more here)
witch witch witch
Camden People’s Theatre
Riot grrrl ritual. Two witches meet a young woman who has run away from a stagnating relationship, and use magik to try and convince her that she should join their coven instead. The magik is the audience – they are the ‘hairy spirit’ that the witches pray to, providing potion ingredients, volunteers, and percussion/backing vocals for punk incantations. Funded by the Alpine Fellowship, written w the cast (Josephine Starte, Ami Okumura Jones and Caitlin Doherty) (more here)
horsehead
The Yard Theatre
Revenge tragedy w audience as revenger, set in a hauntological town hall meeting. OHP puppetry and songs (the audience sang too) to tell a story of love and trampling based on the paintings of Tom de Freston. Louise Mari (Shunt, Nigel & Louise, Samuel Beckett Award-winner) said ‘I can’t remember the last time I felt like this in the theatre – shambolic chaotic genius’. Andy Field (Forest Fringe) called it ‘beautifully conceived; touchingly delicate and nuanced even in its vaudevillian grotesquery’. Paapa Essiedu directed a pared-down version for a charity performance at the Royal Court (more here)
waist
Fiddler’s Elbow (Edinburgh Free Fringe), Bike Shed Exeter, Old Fire Station Oxford, Trinity Centre Bristol, Tom Thumb Margate, The Hope London
Kebab-based modern satyr play – naturalistic dread is disrupted by a ranting satyr, who turns the audience into a singing monster and has it eat the protagonists. FringeReview Number One Pick of the Free Fringe, and The Scotsman gave it four stars. The Independent called it a ‘well-observed combination of the fantastical and prosaic, capturing a youthful ennui with scathing accuracy’ and The Stage said ‘Parker Rees has a talent for writing sharp, witty and frank dialogue’. Tim Crouch called it a reason to be cheerful (more here)
hoof hoof
Bongo Club, Edinburgh Fringe
Ill-advised folk-punk opera for children based on Euripides’ Bacchae and Cyclops. Live music was performed by the cast (banjo, fiddle, guitar, cajon) – and the audience had songsheets so they could join in when they wanted to. ‘Pick of the Fringe’ in What’s On Stage and FringeReview. As well as directing, and writing the libretto (if you can call it that) I made the costumes and puppets (more here)