DIGITAL FILM WORK

Lone Women

LONE WOMEN

Film Description

LONE WOMEN is a film, physical theatre and new writing project that we created over lockdown with filmmakers First Take, a collection of female performers and 5 amazing writers based in the North: Jhilmil Breckenridge, Ella Greenhil, Jennifer Lee Tsai and Lizzie Nunnery.

 

Each writer, has written about an aspect of being a woman that is close to their heart, and Artistic Director, Elinor Randle, has worked with film makers First Take to create 5 short films, interspersing movement, image and words.

 

Tmesis has worked with a number of talented female performers including Annabel Dowler (Kirsty in The Archers), Louise McNulty (Widnes based TV & theatre actress) dance artists Jennifer Essex, Mira Gokul and Pei Tong and young actress Kel Nkondock who has just completed our Wicked Women course.

 

Some of the films are filmed on mobile phones by the performers, and some, on location by First Take.

 

The films will be released weekly from Mon 28th Sept. Thanks to Arts Council England for supporting this project and all the amazing women who have contributed. 16 female creatives have worked on this project over lockdown.

 

Film Review

These are all beautifully crafted and very diverse films by talented writers…treasured fragments, quietly & poetically reminding us of our fragility and humanity in the face of individual, personal struggles and uncertainty.’  ★★★★ Northwestend

 

FILM FESTIVALS

Fallen Star – Sao Carlos VideoDance festival – Brazil- November 2021


Fallen Star &  Neat and Tidy-  Elefeet on  Film Festival- London August 2021

 

We Are Becoming Invisible- Bold Dance Festival- Canberra- March 2022

IT HURTS - LIZZIE NUNNERY

Film credits

Written by Lizzie Nunnery

Voice- Annabelle Dowler

Performed by Elinor Randle

Filmed & edited by First Take

Music- Meike Holzmann

Film: FALLEN STAR- JENNIFER LEE TSAI

Film Credits

Written and narrated by Jennifer Lee Tsai

Performed by Pei Tong

Directed by Elinor Randle

Composer- Meike Holzmann

Filmed & edited by First Take

NEAT AND TIDY- ELLA GREENHILL film

Film Credits

Written by Ella Greenhill

Performed & devised by Jennifer Essex

Directed by Elinor Randle

Filmed  by Jennifer Essex

Remote film direction and edit- First Take

Music- Meike Holzmann

Film: SLAG- WRITER ANONYMOUS

Film Credits

*Content/trigger warning: description of rape/sexual assault*

Performed by Kel Nkondock

Voice- Hannah Batley

Directed by Elinor Randle

Filmed  by Noa Sovilla Orfila 

Remote film direction and edit- First Take

Film: WE ARE BECOMING INVISIBLE- JHILMIL BRECKENRIDGE

Film Credits

Written by Jhilmil Breckenridge

Created & Performed by Mira Balchandran Gokul 

Direction from Elinor Randle

Filmed  by Kuntal Desai

Music composed by Meike Holzmann

Edited by First Take

WRITERS BIOS

Writers for the Film bio:

Lizzie Nunnery is an award-winning scriptwriter, working in theatre, radio, film and TV. Work includes Intemperance (Liverpool Everyman, 2007) which was shortlisted for the Meyer-Whitworth Award, and Narvik (UK Tour 2017, Norwegian tour 2019) which won Best New Play at the UK Theatre Awards. She is currently developing an original feature film script supported by BFI, and an original drama series with Tigerlily Productions and Liverpool Film Office. Lizzie is also a songwriter and singer.

 

Jhilmil Breckenridge is a poet, writer and activist. She is the founder of Bhor Foundation, an Indian charity, active in mental health advocacy and the trauma informed approach. She advocates Poetry as Therapy and is working on a few initiatives, both in the UK and India, taking this into prisons and mental health institutions. Her debut poetry collection, Reclamation Song, was published in May 2018 by Red River Press, India and in November 2019 by Verve Poetry Press, UK. She has recently co-edited a collection of essays on mental health and this was published as Side Effects of Living (Women Unlimited and Speaking Tiger, 2019).

 

Jennifer Lee Tsai is a poet, editor and critic. She was born in Bebington and grew up in Liverpool. Jennifer is a fellow of The Complete Works, a Ledbury Poetry Critic and Contributing Editor to Ambit. Her debut poetry pamphlet is Kismet (ignitionpress). In 2019, she was awarded an AHRC scholarship to undertake doctoral research in Creative Writing at Liverpool University. She is the winner of a Northern Writers Award for Poetry 2020.

 

Ella Greenhill is under commission with the BBC for a 90 minute drama and is also developing an original series with BBC studios. She is writing for Coronation street with over 50 episodes under her belt. Her play Plastic Figurines toured with Box of Tricks and is published by Methuen. Ella’s short film A Portrait of a Mother was commissioned by

 

One of the writers wants to remain anonymous.

 

Composer 

Meike Holzmann is a German born musician, multi-instrumentalist composer and sound designer who writes and produces for theatre, dance and film, as well as her own compositions. She has worked with Tmesis on the past five productions. She composed the ‘5 Movements for String Quartet’ for the project Heart Variations, and collaborated with South African choreographer Sbonakaliso Ndaba and Indoni Dance.

 

First Take is an award-winning not for profit filmmaking and digital arts organisation specialising in working with diverse communities and on artistic collaborations, producing edgy, authetic, untold and often complex stories. Their work has been shown at festivals worldwide, including; 31 Days Old’ Museum of Motherhood in New York, documentaries, ‘The Unlimited House of Krip’ nominated for ‘Best of British’ at Iris Prize 2018 and ‘Pink: Past and Present, winner of Lesbian and Gay ‘Homo Hero’ award.

PERFORMERS BIOS

Performers for the film bio

Annabelle Dowler is originally from Formby. She has undertaken a wide range of work in Theatre, Film, Television and Radio. Her theatre work includes Tartuffe for English Touring Theatre and Liverpool Playhouse, No Wise Men, The Flint Street Nativity, The Mayor of Zalamea and Breezeblock Park at Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, Peter Pan at the National Theatre.

 

TV includes the Netflix series, Sense8, Mother’s Day, Emmerdale, Lewis, Eastenders, Silent Witness and The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Film credits include Suffragette, Another Mother’s Son and Brexit – an Uncivil War. Annabelle has worked extensively in Radio Drama.

 

As well as playing Kirsty in The Archers for the last 20 years, she has been a member of the BBC Radio Drama Company and work includes Wuthering Heights, Mr Lowry’s Loves & My Turn to Make the Tea.

 

Jennifer Essex is a choreographer, originally from Canada, now living and working in the North East of England. She’s worked with Tmesis Theatre on That’s Amore, Happy Hour, and Beyond Belief. She’s the Artistic Director of Fully Booked Theatre, which creates interactive dance theatre for children and families. She has performed across North America and Europe in works by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Gary Clarke, Rosie, Kay, and Rachel Browne, among others and was a dancer in the feature films Anna Karenina and Les Miserables.

 

Louise McNulty celebrates 25 years of professional acting,voice over, directing and creative project management in 2020. The Widnes-based actor also is the manager of her local community venue The Studio. Enjoying both theatre and TV, Louise has most recently appeared as a semi recurring character in Emmerdale, Her Productions Vignettes at Hope Mill in Manchester and Renny Krupinski’s one woman show, A Dangerous Woman at Edinburgh Fringe (2018).

 

Kel Nkondock is a young Spanish actress, based in Liverpool with passion for physical theatre and choreography. She’s trained with Innocentia Inviolata, The Lucid Body and Tmesis Theatre (Physical Fest and Wicked Women Creative Development course). This year she became a member of the National Youth Theatre. She has worked as a dancer, actress and production assistant as well as performed for many independent art projects in both France and England. Most recently she played the part of Ursula in the short film Heirlooms.

 

Pei Tong is Co-Founder and Co-Director of Movema, a world dance company based in Liverpool. Original from Malaysian, and of Chinese descent, Pei travelled to UK to do pharmacy and ended up having dance as a career, training at the Limon Institute in New York. Pei is also a choreographer, and community artist and has worked nationally and internationally.

 

Mira Balchandran Gokul. As a child Mira studied Kathakali with Sadanam Krishnankutty and Sadanam Nandakumar. Later she went on to study Bharatanatyam at the Kalakshetra College of Fine Arts, Chennai and has worked with pioneering tutors and choreographers in India and England. Mira has performed and taught extensively. She co founded Sankalpam dance company in 1994 and has been its Co artistic director, performer and tutor to date. She is currently Principal Artist for the Bharatanatyam strand of the Centre for Advanced Training Scheme and continues to teach and perform as an Independent artist.

I AM NOT OKAY

I AM NOT OKAY is a film made for COoL Liverpool’s Black History Month Festival, inspired by Buster Nugent’s week long protest at Princes Park gates following George Floyd’s horrific death.

 

Performed by Ithalia Forel & Kolade T Lapido

Directed  by Elinor Randle

Film by First Take

Supported by Culture Liverpool