On 3rd June at Hackney Attic, we announced our plans for the 6th year of Underwire.

The festival will take place from 20th – 22nd November at Hackney Picturehouse and in Hackney Attic. For the first time, we will be screening feature films: a new drama and a new documentary will be previewed, alongside a film selected “from the archive” by a major UK female filmmaker.

The rest of our Time of the Month events will also be held in Hackney Attic, with the next one taking place on 21st July, and our Programme Launch on 30th September.

This week we were delighted to welcome 4 previous Underwire winners to talk about their current projects and share their advice.

 

Stephanie Zari Winner 2010, Best Director Marigolds

Currently working on 3rd draft of psychological thriller feature In Our Blood

“Writing my first feature film definitely feels like a new frontier for me. The best advice I can think of is - be prepared to be in it for the long run! There highs and lows and having/finding a good development producer and a handful of fellow writers/filmmakers that you trust for good, solid, honest feedback is essential as it’s a loooooooong and lonely road sometimes that can take you to the deepest recesses of your mind and soul - well for me it is, because I feel if you can’t allow yourself to go to those places - your characters and stories will be two dimensional at best - and there’s a hell of a lot of those out there! Jill Soloway pretty much nailed it in her AFI speech. “If you can’t cry, you’re a liability.””

 

Leanne Welham Winner 2011, XX Award Nocturn

Keep on Running is a documentary feature film about the disappearance of Sierra Leone’s top female athlete Mamie Konneh-Lahun, after finishing 20th in the London Marathon. What pushed her to do it? Where is she now? And why do Sierra Leone’s top athletes keep disappearing?

“My main advice would be: Just keep going and don’t give up!”

 

Prano Bailey Bond Winner, 2012 Best Editor Unraveled Winner 2013, Best Director The Trip

Nasty is a short fantasy horror set in 1982. Twelve-year old Doug is drawn into the lurid world of VHS horror as he explores the mysterious disappearance of his father. Shot on 16mm and Super 8mm, and due for completion this month.

“Cast well, make time for rehearsals, prepare obsessively but be ready for things to change, go with your gut, know when to compromise and think equally about sound and picture.”

Prano’s Facebook page

 

Claire Oakley Winner, 2014 Best Director Tracks

Feature script The Swan: Set amongst the solid brick and pristine tarmac of Britain’s newest town, The Swan is an intimate drama that charts the mysterious unravelling of a seemingly stable marriage after an extraordinary event reveals that it has been built on perilously broken ground.

“I wrote The Swan with Torino Film Lab which has been a hugely supportive and encouraging way to write my first feature. The tutors are brilliant and the energy and generosity from the other participants has been invaluable. I could not recommend the lab more highly (but there are also many other labs across Europe and the USA).”

And short film, Waterfall, shot entirely underwater. It is about memory and how it lurks under the surface of our everyday lives.

“Our ethos with Waterfall was just to get out there and make something. We didn’t want to wait around for a green light and so we had to be very pragmatic from the start, figuring out what was going to be possible without any funding. We ended up shooting on Go-Pros with a homemade rig made of an old TV aerial, a mobile phone and some rubber gloves. My advice would be to think carefully about what you want to achieve and how you might do it with the tools you have to hand, of course whilst also retaining the integrity of the project.”

Follow Claire on Twitter and Instagram @cnoakley or email [email protected]

 

Join us to meet fellow filmmakers, and hear from more of our previous winners at our next event on 21st July!

Remember to submit your film by 31st JULY

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