Insider, Outsider
A programme of National Film and Television School fiction, documentary and animation films connected by the theme of an inner sense of displacement, curated from our collection by Heeyeon Park.
The Gravedigger's Tale - a still from the film, 4 of 4 (2013) by Minyoung OhNational Film and Television School
Sometimes the physical place you stand on embodies your inner sense of displacement - This collection of shorts looks at stories of those who long for a place or a someone to truly belong to, and sometimes find home in the most unlikely of places.
Territory (2015)
The rock of Gibraltar is shared between two primate species: people and monkeys. With the arrival of the latest human inhabitants - the British - some 300 years ago, the native inhabitants - the monkeys - now fight for a place to live on. As tensions between the two rise, the government resorts to more drastic tactics to expel them.
Territory - a still from the film, 1 of 4 (2015) by Eleanor MortimorNational Film and Television School
The overall tone is humorous, as we see ‘chase scenes’ of monkeys running amok / treading carefully along the walls of human architecture with officers chasing them around, while oblivious tourists take pictures of the affair. Their movements and sounds blend in with the human ones, almost indistinguishable from one another.
Territory - a still from the film, 4 of 4 (2015) by Eleanor MortimorNational Film and Television School
Then with the last scene we realise there is a graver layer to this story - of the fate of natives in the face of colonisation / gentrification. These neighbours, sometimes pesky but ultimately only looking for a place to live in peace, are branded as pests, wander like street urchins, and ultimately deported. Where will they go now?
Scarborough Ahoy! (1994)
Maria, a bartender who practices drunken one-night stands in her London flat, meets Michael, a handsome gay loner, at the bar. The mismatched couple go on an impromptu trip to Scarborough to find men and easy sex, but their own relationship… gets complicated.
Scarborough Ahoy! - a still from the film, 2 of 4 (1994) by Tania DiezNational Film and Television School
The landscape and weather of Scarborough, in combination with the 90s indie look, creates an atmosphere that’s raw and gravelly but ultimately sincere, just like the protagonists who live impulsive lives but are soft at heart. The gender conflict is explored in a sophisticated context, and the take on gender fluidity is remarkably modern.
Scarborough Ahoy! - a still from the film, 1 of 4 (1994) by Tania DiezNational Film and Television School
This is a coming-of-age story of lost adults: feeling it's too late to change, they refuse to change even when the opportunity arises. The ending may look like it was all a brief daydream, but doesn't feel bitter- their rendezvous, albeit short, was the true romance they didn’t know they needed until Scarborough.
The Gravedigger’s Tale (2013)
The gravedigger leads a solitary existence. Every night there is a haunting melody that floats in from the edge of the forest where Death appears to take the souls away. One day, she finds a sick man and takes him in; and they fall in love. Could this be the man who can save her from loneliness?
The Gravedigger's Tale - a still from the film, 1 of 4 (2013) by Minyoung OhNational Film and Television School
The story is set in imagined ancient Korea, where gravediggers are considered lowly, and a woman doing such a job would mean she’d never find a partner. Her place of residency - a cemetery - renders her socially dead. When you’re this closer to death than the living, perhaps your ideal match follows suit.
Dim Sum (2002)
Three Chinese women - Wah So, Marietta, and Linda - sit making dumplings in a Chinese grocery. The filmmaker Jane Wong, who is the daughter of Marietta, takes you around the Chinese community in Liverpool to show intimate portraits of everyday lives of those who have built a new home for themselves in the UK.
Dim Sum - a still from the film, 4 of 4 (2002) by Jane WongNational Film and Television School
What may seem like a mundane and unremarkable part of life - ordering a fish burger or pronouncing ‘satisfy’ - can be a very different experience to an immigrant’s eyes.It’s time the stories of those British people who have adapted and survived to make this foreign soil their home was seen and heard more.
Hotel 66 (2008)
A hotel security guard sparks a connection with a customer, an attractive man who frequently brings women back to his room. They're both lonely in a big foreign city and curious about each other, and subtly devise set-ups to see more of each other around the small building.
Lee Kang-Yi walking towards the room in question in Hotel 66 (2010) by Oli Upton & Erika SummersonNational Film and Television School
Through the use of cinematography, design and lighting, the short recreates the vibe of 90’s Hong Kong films despite being set in London - like the hotel that has elements of the homeland but is so far away from it. Through small memories and tender gestures they exchange, though, they will gradually find home here.
Poles Apart (2017)
This is the story of an unlikely meeting between Nanuk, a tough female polar bear, and Aklak, an enthusiastic male grizzly bear. Melting Arctic and changing habitat has left the solitary Nanuk desperately hungry. When she meets the hopeful and eager Aklak, Nanuk must decide if the naïve grizzly is her food or friend.
Poles Apart Still (2017) by Paloma BaezaNational Film and Television School
Boasting a gorgeous stop-motion animation with a superb voice cast that are hard to not love, Poles Apart achieves being both an entertaining watch and a cautionary tale with a heavier theme of climate change.
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