TalentLab

About

B3 Talentlab is a bespoke talent development programme aimed at Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) artists and filmmakers, run in collaboration with Skillset. Talentlab offers writers and directors a unique opportunity to re-assess their professional practice, refine their skills, and gain the confidence and contacts to push their careers and projects to the next level. We sought 24 individuals with short, feature-length, multimedia fiction, documentary or animation ideas to participate in a series of development labs in June 2012. From this lab, 12 projects were selected for further exploration and then these six projects were taken forward for extended development. This is an eclectic cohort of storytellers with distinctive voices and track records in visual and digital arts, film, theatre and TV.

COMMISSIONED PROJECTS:

‘FAMILY PORTRAIT’
Genre: Short fiction drama

About the artist:

Ahmad El-Sanhouri a British born Sudanese filmmaker and photographer is keen to explore stories that touch upon his heritage and experiences. In particular works that express and celebrate the vibrant cultures that co exist in the UK today. Graduating from The University of Creative Arts in 2003 he has since worked on several creative projects. Notably in 2007 he was awarded a grant by the Haringey Council to direct his short Dear Anne Frank, the story of an Arabic girl chosen for the lead role of Anne Frank in a school play and the tension this causes with her mother who doesn’t want her playing the role of a Jewish girl.

Ahmad’s photography has been exhibited at the British museum and his projects have been hugely diverse, ranging from traveling through The Sudan, documenting the Hajj pilgrimage or taking photographs of Underground commuters for his website www.tubepeople.org.

Synopsis:
Family Portrait is a short film about a mother taking her son to a photography studio and the tension that ensues when the son realises there is more to the relationship between his mother and the photographer.

At its core this film deals with the relationship between a mother and her son and the conflict that can arise when another man attempts to enter this relationship and take the role of a father or provider.

‘TASTING THE SALT’
Genre: Short fiction drama

About the artist:

Aleem Khan is a graduate of The University of Westminster Film School, where he directed and produced several plays and short films before joining Evidently, one of London's leading creative content agencies as a director-producer. His first short film, Diana, premiered at The 23rd BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. It has screened at over 26 film festivals internationally, winning the Screen Academy Wales Award for Best British Short Film at the Iris Prize Film Festival 2009 and the Jury Award for Best Short Film at The Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival 2009.

Last year, Aleem produced the short film, What You Looking At?!, and completed his second short film, The Wayfaring Stranger. Aleem was selected to take part in this year’s Locarno Summer Academy in Switzerland and is currently developing another short film, whilst looking ahead to his first feature.

In addition to his film work, Aleem continues to direct for theatre. He directed the play, Frank Sent Me, at the Soho Theatre (Winner of Best Play at Writer’s Avenue Competition 2012) and he is currently directing a series of short plays for Writer’s Bloc at The Old Red Lion Theatre and is attached to direct for Theatre 503’s ‘Rapid Write Response’ programme in February 2013.

Synopsis:
Tasting the Salt follows Riz, a young British Muslim who joins the British Army in an attempt to leave the mundanity of his hometown behind and follow in his paternal grandfathers footsteps. Caught between Islamic and British nationalist extremism, Riz is faced with a dilemma that threatens to destroy his fledgling career in the military and forces him to question where his allegiances lie. 

‘TRANSMISSION’
Genre: Feature drama

About the artist:

Since graduating from NYU’s graduate film programme in Singapore in 2010, Ashish Ghadiali has worked as a screenwriter with Shekhar Kapur, Bollywood producer Mukesh Bhatt and Oscar-winning Austrian producer, Josef Aichholzer. He was the winner of the first UK Film Council John Brabourne Award in 2008, and helped to set up, in 2007, the media unit of The Freedom Theatre in Jenin Refugee Camp. As Director, he is currently in development on: Revolutionary Art, a feature-length documentary about art and politics in the middle east; Realism, a psychological cop thriller set in Mumbai; and Transmission, a vampire story set in contemporary Berlin.

Synopsis:
Matilda is an English expat living a life of anonymity in Berlin. When Anton, her ex turns up from London though, she’s drawn from her isolation into a disturbing world of sensuality and suffering that changes her forever. She finds herself abandoned, harbouring a mysterious ailment, and her life slips into a state of destitution. She’s discovered collapsed on the floor of a supermarket in Neukolln by Shahid, a Palestinian immigrant who works there in his uncle’s kebab shop. Led by a series of dreams, Shahid ignores her confused warnings to keep his distance from her, believing he can help her out of this situation that she’s in. Only when it’s too late, when he’s already lost control, does he discover that the condition developing inside Matilda, the process he has been nurturing, is her transformation into a vampire. Shahid is merely the victim she needs to feed on, to complete this change of being.

Emboldened by this conquest, Matilda grows to inhabit the form of the vampire more fully, posing as a prostitute on the Kurfurstenstrasse, tearing out the throats of strange men, leaving them for dead. Shahid escapes from her, returning to his family. He takes refuge in Islam. He discovers redemption on the prayer mat and in the idea of surrender to God. But Matilda’s torment continues to haunt him, and he wonders whether he is in some way to blame for her downfall. Perhaps he gave in too fast to his fear and panicked? Perhaps he failed to give enough of himself? Perhaps he just failed to love her? Risking destruction, Shahid returns to Matilda to pit the strength of his faith against the power of her bloodlust. Testing this dream of redemption, he ventures back into the darkness once again…

‘MAN FROM FUKUSHIMA’
Genre: Cross platform

About the artist:

Kazuko Hohki s a founder member of the pop performance group Frank Chickens with whom she has released 5 albums, toured worldwide and won the publicly voted Foster Comedy God Award in 2010. Kazuko’s past performance work includes a trilogy of solo theatre performances: Toothless (1998), The Shining Princess (1999) and My Husband is a Spaceman (2002), all of which toured the UK and internationally, to wide acclaim. Other shows include Herald Angel and Total Theatre Award winning Evidence for the Existence of Borrowers (2005); Oh Doh (2006), Kazuko Hohki’s Wuthering Heights (2007) and Last Night I dreamed I Was An Eskimo (2010), commissioned by Nordland Visual Theater in Norway. Kazuko created Great Escape (A Borrowers Tale) as a Children’s Christmas show for BAC (2010), You Only Live Twice (But Die Once) for the One on One Festival at BAC (2011), Tottenham Travesties for Birmingham Rep (2011) and Incontinetnal. Kazuko is a founder member of Japanese American Toy Theatre Of London and has presented C4’s Kazuko’s Karaoke Klub and The Good Wife Of Tokyo. She has published 4 books in Japan.

Synopsis:
Kazuko is a Japanese woman, an exile in England. She left Japan 30 years ago, feeling she was a misfit and has become an artist in England. One day in April 2012, Kazuko meets Takashi, a polite Japanese businessman in his forties, on a London bus. He is watching a Godzilla movie - one of Kazuko’s favourites - on his iPad. He comes from Fukushima, the area of Japan that recently suffered a big earthquake and a tsunami. Kazuko notices some strange things about Takashi: he emits little Godzilla-like roars now and then. Kazuko senses there is something deeply troubling him. Takashi eventually tells her he is in London looking for his wife and daughter, who disappeared after the Tsunami incident. He thinks they came to the UK, as they were both very keen on the royal wedding.

Kazuko realizes that Takashi believes his whole family have changed into Godzillas, due to radiation from the Fukushima nuclear plant destroyed by the tsunami. Takashi’s family were two of the 15,000 people missing after the incident. Kazuko is lost for words. The only thing she can do is promise to search for his family on the day of the royal wedding. The day of the royal wedding arrives. Kazuko first pretends, but among the national frenzy, she starts to believe she might actually see his family there.

‘CAROUSEL’
Genre: Short fiction drama

About the artist:

NILESH BELL-GORSIA is a young Anglo-Indian filmmaker from London. He is every bit the hardworking perfectionist; his films are often made for little or no money and display a high technical standard. As a Director/Writer he is determined to entertain and challenge audiences with a unique visual flair, whilst exploring characters set in darkly comic environments. Regardless of the genre, his films are thought provoking and made to leave a lasting impression on the audience. Nilesh is a truly versatile artist and his films hold up a mirror to the world reflecting a paradigm of human emotions. Although relatively young, he displays all the maturity, talent and ambition of someone that has been in the industry for many years.

Synopsis:
15-year-old SATYA is a misfit teen who dreams of escaping her humdrum suburban life. She lives with her distant father and 9-year old brother Raj, who has an unhealthy obsession for horror films and makes threats to her life on a daily basis. One day, walking home from a failed audition comically dressed as a swan, Satya meets a neighbourhood boy called CHARLIE. There is something different even exotic about Charlie. She is instantly drawn to him. On an impromptu date the two develop a charming and offbeat rapport. Satya soon learns about Charlie’s bizarre plan to escape to Blackpool, a place he has never been to. Unsatisfied with their lives, they hatch a plan to flee in Charlie’s rusting car.

With dead end suburbia almost behind them both Satya and Charlie face the beginning of the end. Will they make it to the bright lights of Blackpool or discover what they have both been searching for all along? Carousel is an exuberant and darkly comic tale of restless youth.

‘My Half Night With Him’
Genre: Feature drama

About the artist:

Shan Ng is a writer and director who works in film and theatre and specialises in challenging and abstract drama. She has previously with Film London and The Arts Council England. For the past four years she has been a studio director/vision mixer at the BBC World Service. Shan's debut short, Playground, was screened at many international festivals including Berlin, Budapest, Essen and New York and her second film, Merry-Go-Round, was the winner of the Borough Film Fund Award in 2008. In 2010 her short, May Wong, premiered in London at the Royal Opera House and is now touring Asia having screened at the Hong Kong Arts Festival and the Beijing Britain Now Festival. Her most recent short is Narcissus, a music video commissioned by Bomba Suicida. Her first theatre work, The Pilgrimage of the Heart was funded by the Arts Council She is currently writing a new short film and developing an opera with her regular production designer Edward Lidster. Shan's first feature length script, My Half Night With Him, was shortlisted by Microwave Film Fund, Film London last year and is now in development with B3 media.

Synopsis:
Set in London but heavily influenced by Buddhist ideas of reincarnation and destiny My Half Night With Him explores themes of contemporary female sexuality and self-worth. The film will be poetic and deeply unsettling. Using the backdrop of a busy and often unwelcoming London My Half Night With Him follows Chinese immigrant Bee as she struggles to come to terms with the way that her relationship with her boyfriend El is changing and disintegrating. Having been told by El that his feelings for her are still deep but now purely platonic, Bee embarks on a series of progressively troubled attempts to sexually satisfy him. However, none of these ploys work, and as their relationship enters its death throes El and Bee each have a series of flashbacks to their former lives - and the past seemingly prevents the chance of their relationship ever working in the present. My Half Night With Him is a haunting and challenging urban tale about sex, breaking up and karma.

Massive thanks to the Talentlab artists and the many individuals and organizations without whose support Talentlab would not have happened: Dan Simmons, Skillset, Arts Council England, Steve Benford, Ken Dancyger, Franz Rodenkirchen, Gamila Yistra, Sandhya Suri, Angus Finney, Jaime D’Cruz, Osbert Parker, Atif Ghani, Kibwe Tavares, Taina Galis, Gary Stewart, Rob Curry, Andy Whittaker, Shazad Khalid and the B3 team.