Northern Exposure Short Film Night: October 2023

Film Programme:

Short Change – 7:20
Director: Sam Bond
Short Change is a short documentary about young people and political disillusionment, blending BBC archive footage from 1978 of street interviews and the Clash with modern footage of spoken word, interviews, and candid footage of youth culture, observing how attitudes towards government and politics have persisted through the generations, despite the things that have changed (and the things that haven’t).

Teddy – 12:30
Director: Milda Baginskaite
A young immigrant searches for her own identity while fighting for recognition in a male-dominated classroom.

The Ode to Partition – 12:00
Director: Tajpal Rathore
British. Asian. Is that two identities or one? It certainly should be a question for all Britons, not just them. Four British Asians confront the reality of their existence as Britons and try to come to terms with their split heritage, reflecting on the effects of Empire through the lens of the Partition of India, one of the driving forces of South Asian migration to the UK. This film was made to mark 75 years since the Partition of India.

Dirty Wanker – 14:03
Directed by: Jen Gallagher
Katy is a dirty wanker, or at least that’s what her older brother Billy keeps calling her after their mother catches her masturbating. Shamed in front of her whole family sixteen-year-old Katy watches helplessly as her disgusted Mother vows to stop her doing it again because “Nice girls don’t do that sort of thing.” With her mother launching a full scale assault on her privacy, removing all possible temptations and even her bedroom door, and her brother happy to amuse himself by humiliating her at every turn Katy realises she has no choice but to “take matters into her own hands” and fight to regain control of her sexuality. Katy turns to her imagination creating a crudely drawn character brought to life in a series of surreal sexual encounters. When her brothers relentless mocking results in an unexpected threat to her safety Katy retreats into her fantasy world where she finds help is waiting…

F.O.G – 10:11
Director: Malinda Kaur
F.O.G (Fear, Obligation, Guilt) Set in Bradford, we follow Ranjit & her Mum Chanda within a regular day on a regular journey. All from within the car we start to see tension build as Ranjit tries to hide her truth.
This is a coming out story, a nuanced portrayal of a mother-daughter relationship. Drawing upon a mother’s expectations of a dutiful daughter, the film explores family obligation and associated guilt that reflects the emotional strains of being a South Asian woman in modern British society.

HAV – 2:55
Director: Eleanor Szydlowska
On an isolated island, a boy is haunted by his recurring nightmares of the sea, which now start to bleed into his waking hours. The more he ignores his visions, the more aggressively they plague him, until ultimately, he must face his fear head on.

Mama Justine Hair of Beauty – 3:33
Director: Dhivya Kate Chetty
In her salon in Sheffield, England, hairdresser, Justine, takes time to wash and braid her daughter Moklaman’s hair. Visually and sonically exploring the affectionate, bi-lingual interactions between a mother and child, Mama Justine Hair of Beauty tenderly weaves the maternal, the political and the personal in this intimate portrait, a celebration of Afro hair and raising strong girls.

Midnight Whispers – 9:53
Director: Baldwin Li
In a world where poetry is an illegal substance, a dealer roams around an estate receiving cash in exchange for whispering lines of illicit verse into her customers’ ears. But when she runs out of material, she must find some fresh lines for her favourite customer before they meet again at midnight – or risk losing him forever.