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We’re so excited to bring you London Calling as part of the BFI London Film Festival's LFF For Free: Shorts strand, featuring films funded by BFI NETWORK and delivered by Film London. Find out more below and see which Film London Lodestars feature on the line-up!
The Bower, from Director-Screenwriter Marco Alessi
LFF For Free returns to the BFI London Film Festival this year, offering audiences a programme of events, talks, workshops, and short film screenings for FREE.
We can't wait to bring you London Calling as part of the LFF For Free: Shorts strand, featuring films funded by BFI NETWORK and delivered by Film London. Split over two programmes, you won’t want to miss this selection of shorts from London’s most exciting new filmmakers.
Mai Jeruom, from Director-Screenwriter Adjani Salmon
It’s so great to see films from so many Film London Lodestars in the line-up of Film London/BFI NETWORK shorts!
Featured on the Stories We Tell Ourselves programme is 2022 Film London LodestarMarco Alessi who writes and directs The Bower. The film explores the different generational experiences of HIV through two interwoven timelines in 1991 and 2021, pivoting around a dramatic recreation of queer filmmaker Derek Jarman's canonisation. You can watch Alessi's recent short documentary Saintmaking here. The documentary centres around the parallel tale of Jarman's canonisation by a group of queer activist nuns.
Also featured on the Stories We Tell Ourselves programme is 2022 Lodestar Jamie Macdonald, who produces Goodnight Henry, a film about the scandalous death of a Prime Minister, and 2019 Lodestar Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor who is executive producer on Held, a story of a teenage boy's struggles to mentally recover from a brutal and humiliating attack.
We're also thrilled to see 2022 Film London Lodestar Writers Calvin Demba and Adjani Salmon on the Crucibles of Connection line-up. Adjani Salmon is a BAFTA-winning writer-director and actor whose film Mai Jeruom follows a mother and her family as they anticipate the verdict of her son's trial.
Calvin Demba's BabyDolls sees Billy discover his toxic traits as a boyfriend once his BabyDoll begins to mirror his behaviour. Earlier this year, Jordan McGarry, Film London's Head of Talent Development & Production, praised the comedic short for managing ''to feel fresh and Shakespearean all at the same time.'' Watch a teaser for BabyDolls here.
