03 Aug The winners of the inaugural Estuary on Film announced
The winners of the inaugural Estuary on Film – a regional talent development opportunity delivered by Screen South in partnership with Creative Estuary – can now be revealed.
Charlie Tidmus, George Morgan, Vickie Donoghue and Natalie Mitchell together with Scott Hurran, plus Yero Timi-Biu and Busayo Ige will now see their creative and thought-provoking proposals for short films be realised thanks to a £20,000 fund from Creative Estuary.
The initiative is designed to further strengthen partnerships and connections across the estuary, demonstrating the Estuary’s growth as a creative industries cluster and the wealth of talent in the region amongst our emerging and established filmmakers. The opportunity to make a short film which presents unique stories and diverse perspectives from the area will also act as a showcase of the breadth of the estuary’s creative potential.
Given a brief of putting forward fresh and innovative proposals for an equal share of the funding, the emerging Estuary based film makers, writers, actors and directors were tasked with reflecting core characteristics of the Thames Estuary region; diversity, ideas and themes that really matter to local communities and originality.
The winning entries certainly hit the mark.
Writer/director Charlie Tidmus’ Ceremony is about a young trans man, who is hounded by a gang of men seemingly out for his blood in an unusual ceremony of acceptance, masculinity, and integration into their tribe.
I Promised You, I Won’t Forget, by writer/director George Morgan revolves around the story of a second-generation Black British teen who is forced to migrate from Brixton across the Estuary towards Essex and subsequently confront his attitude towards grief following a family tragedy.
In Halfway Between the Land and Sea we meet Unworldly Shaun, who has never left Essex before but when an unexpected trip on the Tilbury-Gravesend Ferry opens up his mind and viewpoint, he begins to see more clearly where he’s from and more importantly where he could go. The script is the work of the writers Vickie Donoghue and Natalie Mitchell, working with director Scott Hurran.
Completing the quartet of new films is Essex Girls, which flips the popular stereotype of young women from the county, instead taking the viewer on an exploration of Black British girlhood and magical female friendships in 2009 Essex. It is the work of writer-director Yero Timi-Biu and writer and actress Busayo Ige.
Each individual and team will now be given £5000 each to transform their script concepts into a fully-realised short features, on the basis that they must be made in the Thames Estuary region, as far as possible, and drawing on local crew and talent.
In addition to the £5000, the filmmakers will also be supported at every stage of the production process by Screen South and industry professionals, encouraging their artistic ambitions and helping them to excellence across all areas of activity. Once the films have been made, Creative Estuary and its partners will help the filmmakers with their distribution plans and assist to get their work placed with Estuary-based festivals and cinemas, to seek high profile promotion opportunities for the screening of the films to various audiences in diverse locations.
“The four commissions represent a chance for audiences to hear from new voices, as well as more experienced filmmakers who have compelling ideas with visual storytelling, which is exciting and memorable,” says Jo Nolan, Managing Director of Screen South, “From the outset, we were looking for vibrant storytellers with excellent creative ideas and the potential to make bold, diverse, and confident short films. We came across a lot of very good filmmaking talent the area. Some of them are already making films, while others have yet to reach their full creative potential yet but now, with Creative Estuary’s funding and encouragement these talented local filmmakers can develop their ideas and start their creative journey in a supportive and nurturing environment.”
Creative Estuary’s Director, Emma Wilcox says “This project really showcases the Thames Estuary’s growth as a nationally significant creative industries cluster and celebrates the abundance of talent we have here. It also exemplifies our vision for the Creative Estuary co-commissioning programme, to enable bold, ambitious work to be made with and for the communities of the Estuary.”
The completed films will be shown for the first time at a world premiere screening at a major venue in the Estuary area at the end of September 2022.
