INTERMISSION YOUTH: Shakespeare On Smartphone
CROWN, dir. Abigail Sewell
Free | BSL interpreted
Oscar-winning actor Mark Rylance (Wolf Hall, Bridge of Spies) hosts Intermission Youth’s young filmmakers, BAFTA nominated producer Sorcha Bacon (Wren Boys), and leading smartphone and filmmaker, writer and lecturer Cassius Rayner in a discussion around first-time film making, smartphones and Shakespeare as inspiration.
2020 saw us hit with extraordinary events that have affected each and every one of us. From a deadly virus to a global equal rights movement, our world - its systems and its people - are being challenged.
Social media played a massive part in spreading both positivity and negativity this past year. In response, Intermission Youth founded a filmmaking initiative putting Shakespeare to screen with its makers’ smartphones, and this panel will be punctuated by their resulting ten smartphone-made shorts, each inspired by a line of Shakespeare.
Intermission Youth gives disadvantaged young Londoners the tools to make positive choices and become the best version of themselves through drama, film and mentoring.
CROWN
A Friday night-in braiding hair and discussing dates leaves Fola, Tash and Sandra debating the origins of Shakespeare’s ‘uneasy lies the head that wears the crown’, as they discover this verse is very present in one of their lives.
HEY A
Zharnai Scotland, Dani Adegoke
A is a young woman in her mid 20s going through an internal battle. As she lives alone, in the midst of the lockdown, it gets to her. As she cries in front of a mirror, her future self appears, advices and uplifts her. Will she find her courage?
STATE
Kemi, Devon and Michael are each faced with a choice that is simple on the surface: what do you do when a baby pulls your hair, when you want to impress a date or when you’re at your final straw?
BLOODY NOSES
Bloody Noses is not a film about boxing but instead, about two fighters battling with paralysing fear and anger. For these two young people, what happens during a fight is controlled not by tactics, but by the rage produced by the many challenges they face in their lives.
YEAR OF THE RAT
A team of armed robbers have just returned from a heist, one of them shot and is badly wounded. We find them at their hideout. It’s slowly uncovered that the police knew they were coming and they realise that one of them is, in fact, a rat.
JOY
Following the tumultuous events of 2020 (the murder of George Floyd, the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and the global pandemic), Joy follows the journey of two newly-wed parents trying to rediscover their joy.
MUSTARD
A young unemployed man is trying to apply for a job during the pandemic.
21:42
Baba Oyejide, Tristram Anyiam
Inspired by Chazz Palminteri’s screen play A Bronx Tale and lines from William Shakespeare’s Richard II, this is the story of a young black male, Bobby Kingsley, torn between the easily fascinating gangster lifestyle and his reformed, incarcerated older brother’s advice.
NIGGER NIGGA
Lucie Adewusi, Sara Mokonen
The year 2020. A world where people care more about Black culture than Black lives... An exploration of how important a reclaimed word embedded within a culture plays in the progress of the Black community.
THE HEAD THAT WEARS THE CROWN
A friend suddenly blows on social media due to a post they made that is gaining traction. On the forefront, their mates are supportive. However, behind closed doors, the group makes a trolling account to get their own back.
