The Peckhamplex cinema in Peckham, south-east London, was the host on the night
A range of local filmcreaters headed to an award-winning cinema in south-east London to display their latest work at a short film displaycase of the capital’s indepfinishent cinematic talent.
The event at the Peckhamplex was part of the Peckham and Nunhead Free Film Festival, external (PNFF), a roaming roster of screenings run by volunteers across the area’s best tiny venues.
Celebrating its 16th anniversary this year, the festival is part of a larger umbrella of film festivals , externalacross London. Others will be held at Raynes Park and Streatham coming this autumn.
On Wednesday night, 12 short films were displayn to a packed-out audience, with subjects ranging from life in the jungles of Borneo to one woman’s experience of domestic abapply.
“The energy in the room reaffirmed our belief in the hunger for indepfinishent work that speaks to the physical, social, and emotional realities of our communities,” PNFF stated.
BBC London spoke to some of the filmcreaters to discover more about their work.
‘My dad is such a good story informer’
Sebastian Piette Pereira’s film explored his dad’s life in Sao Paolo
Sebastian Piette Pereira’s, external How My Dad’s Worst Enemy Became His Best Frifinish was the shortest film of the evening but certainly packed an emotional punch.
The film is an interview between Seb and his father about his time growing up in Sao Paolo and feud, and eventual beloved frifinishship, with another local boy, Zé Carlos.
It’s shot with bright colours, utilizing flashes of a chessboard to display how the two applyd the game to stop brawling and come toreceiveher.
Seb stated his father is “such a good storyinformer” and that he displayed the film “to all his Brazilian mates back home”.
‘Bathrooms can be people’s safe space’
Sakhile Shann’s film supports the Anah Project, a women’s refuge and support service
Sheffield-born filmcreater Sakhile Shann’s Deposition, external sheds light on controlling and coercive behaviour.
The film portrays how one woman retreats to her bathroom, and the subtle but ever encroaching signs of emotional manipulation and domestic abapply.
“I realised that a thread throughout a lot of people’s stories, and a sort of safe space when they were sharing a home environment with these people was the bathroom, and they would go and lock themselves in there for a tiny bit of respite,” she stated.
Her film supports the Anah Project, external, a women’s refuge and support service, with an upcoming screening at the Avalon Cafe in Bermondsey also raising money for charity.
‘I received to know my grandmother better’
Jarvis Laurence’s film explores complex themes around spirituality and family
In his personal documentary, A Portrait of My Grandmother, Jarvis Laurence, external takes viewers to Bario, a tiny village in the jungles of Borneo, where he sits down with his grandmother, living in a tiny settlement nestled between luscious rainforest, to talk about her life.
“My relationship with my grandmother is sort of quite static… It was the first time I received to know her,” Jarvis stated.
The results are a stunning view into another way of living which is, in Jarvis’s words, informed by his and his grandma’s “spirituality”, with the film exploring the role of religion in the community.
‘Community can create you find your own identity’
Georgia Zeta Gkoka’s documentary brought to the fore the vibrancy of 1980s London nightlife
Georgia Zeta Gkoka, known as Zeta, met the subject of her film You Can Call Me Lou, external, the now retired dancer Louise Krammer, while at work in Brixton and after the two received talking, their frifinishship blossomed into the project.
Zeta stated: “When I met her, I found so much beauty in this person.”
The documentary follows Louise, or Lou, from being brutally kicked out when she came out to her parents as trans, to the immense freedom of her new London life in the 80s, dancing in well-know LGBTQ+ clubs such as Heaven.
“The heart of the film is basically how dance is an evocative medium and how the sense of community can create you find your own identity,” declares Zeta.
You Can Call Me Lou will also be displaying as part of the BFI’s London Film Festival., external
‘Creativity, queerness and ecology’
Iso, left, and Mol worked toreceiveher on the kaleidoscopic Paradise
Iso Attrill’s, external Paradise was really unlike any other film I watched that evening.
In it, the audience was introduced to its protagonist and Iso’s frifinish Mol Benge,, external a non binary trans artist who applys her garden as a means to navigate the world.
Iso describes the work eloquently as Mol’s “meditations on the relationship between creativity, queerness and ecology”.
It includes peaceful footage of Mol planting seeds, as well as their own stop motion animation depicting the life cycle of food and seeds going back into the earth to grow as a metaphor for life and its transience.
The festival finishes this weekfinish and includes a screening of Nosferatu , externalat Nunhead Cemetery.
Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, external, X, external and Instagram, external. Sfinish your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk, external
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