Welcome to Voice’s first-ever winter film festival.
Voice has always been dedicated to showcasing the creative efforts of our readership. We love the arts (in case you haven’t noticed), and we love to see how young minds work and express themselves through the power of art. Films are no exception. So, building on our coverage of the BBC New Creatives, we decided to showcase more digital content from exceptional creatives – and what better way to do that than with a film festival.
Over the winter months, we will bring you a series of selected short films by creatives from all backgrounds, telling the stories they want to tell. We have a fascinating line up for you alongside exclusive interviews with the minds behind the masterpiece.
Each film will be featured on our homepage for a week. As it’s our first festival, we will be very keen to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment under the film, reach out to us on social media, or send us an email to tell us what you loved (or didn’t love) about the film or the festival itself.
We hope you enjoy the showcase and that it brings you some entertainment in what can be a very gloomy time of the year!
Our first ever Winter Film Festival has now wrapped up, but the films and interviews are still available for you to enjoy below!
See the lineup!
D'vina
Featured 8-14 January
Since his youth, Dave has had a life of conflict; whether it be with his family or inner conflicts with his sexuality. After being forced into the army, leaving with severe mental health problems, find out how a woman called D'vina helped him find his equilibrium.
Sam Oddie is a filmmaker from Manchester who has been trying to break into the film industry since he was 15. Making D'vina gave Sam the confidence boost he needed to continue making films that people can feel connected to.
REDt'BLUE (Exclusive first look)
Featured 15-21 January
REDt’BLUE tells Mansfield’s story; a former pit down born off the back of the coal industry. Mansfield shocked the nation when in 2017 it became one of the first constituencies of its kind to abandon its Labour Party heritage, stretching back almost 100-years, and aim to find a brighter future under Ben Bradley’s Conservative banner.
Jay Martin is a filmmaker and documentary producer and writer. He produces and self-funds all of his own work and has experience in producing music videos. His first documentary was called ‘NG2’ which told the story of Nottingham’s first serial killer.
Black Identity
Featured 22-28 January
Black identity is a short spoken word film about acknowledging your own Black identity in an environment where you are scrutinised continuously, doubted, and always up for debate. It is a celebration of how Black people across the diaspora come to love themselves despite all we are subjected to, a celebration of our joy, beauty, culture and togetherness.
Louis Femi Adebowale is a filmmaker, editor and photographer, currently working for a pre-production company in London. As part of his job role as Junior Development Researcher for RAW TV, Louis sources and develops good, exciting stories that can be turned into documentaries. Having worked in and around the industry for almost five years, Louis has gone from being a runner to his current role and a successful freelancer who has been commissioned to make promotional materials for charities such as Crohn’s and Colitis UK.
Human Nature
Featured 29 January - 4 February
Human Nature is an experimental, visual representation of our relationship to nature and our environment. Found footage of volcanoes, thunderstorms, oceans, and cityscapes are combined with the human body to show our co-existence with nature and question whether we respect it.
Chloe Potamiti is a 23-year-old filmmaker from Athens, Greece. She left home at 17 and moved to the UK, and she has spent the last five years travelling, studying and getting involved in the arts whenever she can.
You, Me and the Silence
Featured 5-11 February
Poppy is a twenty-something, average, young woman living in an unnamed town, living out a fairly average life. The truth is her background is unimportant, what she does, where she works is unknown, and always will be. We follow her on a short tangent, enter her world in which she is plagued by guilt, insomnia, and a playful, if not disturbing ghostly presence called Luna, who turns up wherever Poppy finds herself, with fresh tactics on how to unhinge her mind even further. You, Me and the Silence warps a normal-looking world into one of dark and neon colour. Where the cartoon-like cat and mouse chase between these two protagonists are all that matters, the rest of the world seems to be non-existent as these two, battle out their story to the bloody, indefinite end.
Emily White is a Film Studies graduate from Brunel University. White is a filmmaker, editor and writer alongside the thrill of being a full-time waitress. She is currently based in Suffolk, making little short works of film here and there. White loves to create films of any kind, but fiction is her strong suit. Her goal is to travel and combine her ideas with other people’s to produce new things and new works of art to contribute to the ever changing face of cinema. However, if that doesn’t work out, she’ll carry on being a waitress until further notice.
find ecstasy in life
Featured 12-18 February
2020 was when we lost track of time. It became more of a construct than it already is. In this short film, key events (the highlights) are brought into focus, allowing us to remember the year that the coronavirus came into our lives and made the human race its target.
Annie is a sixth form student, with an offer to go to Manchester next year to study English Literature. From there she aspires to become an English teacher, but will see where life takes her.
Annie views theatre as a place where you can be weird and wonderful and completely accepted. She also enjoys doing art, usually commissions and more recently landscapes and spiritual/mindful based projects! More recently, she has taken up poetry, trying to write one poem a week. Poetry to her is similar to journaling, there is pressure for it to be any good but it's like a purging of emotions and events from the week which is quite therapeutic in a way.
Mora
Featured 19-25 February
When a young woman wakes up from an anxiety-inducing dream, she realises she is unable to move. We watch as she relives moments from her nightmare, combined with other fears, all while paralysed in her bed. This film explores and visualises the experience of sleep paralysis.
Chloe is a 23-year-old filmmaker from Athens, Greece. She left home at 17 and moved to the UK, and she has spent the last five years travelling, studying and getting involved in the arts whenever she can.
happy merry new year, maybe
Featured 26 February - 4 March
2020 was an exceptionally strange year. As it rounds off, we check in with Jonah and Evelynn as they race to make the perfect gingerbread house with pepper decorations! With top notch cooking tips, family Zoom calls and a very Christmassy trip to the shops this film presents a new and comical reflection on the worst year ever.
Watch happy merry new year, maybe
Tafeth is a sixth form student studying film, drama, English and sociology, and is hoping to go into the arts in the future. She has gone to Icon for several years now and absolutely loves performing and theatre.
Christmas dinner… served stone cold
Featured 5 March - 11 March
A bad beginning to an even worse year? Yep! Christmas 2019 set off the year to come…this documentary tells the story of how one family's cold beef Wellington (though not as bad as what was in store for the rest of the world, but still a tragedy at the time) started the worst year in living history (so far...) – 2020.
Christmas dinner… served stone cold
Jacob is17-years-old and currently in year 13. He is planning on going to university in September to study acting, and his ambitions in life are to become a performer of some sort. He hasn't made up his mind up yet but all he knows is he wants to be to be performing.
