Uncommon Voices: Exploring Class in New British Cinema

Ffaswin, The Film

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We’ve all got an image that pops into our head when we think about what a ‘working class film’ might look like, and for most of us, it’s a vision firmly drawn from the past. This selection of recent short films starts a conversation about how working class filmmakers are capturing working class experience in the Britain of today, spanning documentaries, flights of fancy and realism.

What these films uncover are working class experiences that are rich in creativity, complications, uncertainties and contradictions: the very things that make a film worth watching. This programme of shorts, selected by filmmaker and curator Nia Childs, is for anyone who wants to explore working class Britain as it is and imagines itself to be, in the hope of discovering something new.

The Independent Cinema Office, with the support of BFI Film Audience Network, is delivering a limited tour with in-person speaker opportunities available. The project was commissioned by Film Hub Wales who oversee Socio-Economic Inclusion on behalf of BFI FAN, led by Champion Linnea Pettersson.

Programme Duration – 63 minutes

Nocturnal
Director: Ashmy Johnson
Country: UK
Duration: 6 minutes
Release: 2025
Crynodeb: Ray is an off-licence worker, working day and night to keep his family afloat. His daily phone calls back home offer him a lifeline amongst the hustle and bustle of a city he is still getting used to. As his days and nights start to merge into one, Ray is forced to confront the choices he has made that have landed him in this country.

Terence
Director: Edem Kelman
Country: UK
Duration: 15 minutes
Release: 2024
Crynodeb: Terence, a security officer, works the night shift outside a London shopping centre. To the strangers passing by, he is a friendly face, offering directions or a helping hand with shopping bags. To his African community, he is known for his special gift, one he uses to heal those in need.

Never Mind Walnut Street
Director: Marta Dyczkowska
Country: UK
Duration: 13 minutes
Release: 2022
Crynodeb: Never Mind Walnut Street is the intimate story of Marta Dyczkowska’s life and loss, set against the backdrop of the sweeping gentrification of Belfast. The film pays tribute to the city that once shaped Marta’s life, as the very fabric of her landscape changes around her, mirroring her own emotional journey of loss and change.

Three Bull-Mastiffs in a Corner Kitchen
Director: Paul Chambers
Country: UK
Duration: 13 minutes
Release: 2024
Crynodeb: A man looks back on his younger years and relives some of the moments that led him into his troubles with addiction in later life, he looks back with a mature wisdom that flows as poetry.

Journey Mercies
Director: Tomisin Adepeju
Country: UK
Duration: 15 minutes
Release: 2024
Crynodeb: It’s Bade’s last day at work; he’s finally ready to go home.

Ffasiwn, The Film
Director: Charlotte James, Clementine Schneidermann
Country: UK
Duration: 3 minutes
Release: 2019
Crynodeb: From the pebbledash-coated suburbia of South Wales emerges the unique creative expression of the local young people. Donned in hand crafted costumes referencing high fashion, they parade from the estate to Blaenavon mountain, revealing an intimate view of their world.

Distributor: Independent Cinema Office (ICO)
Booking details: [email protected]
The Independent Cinema Office, with the support of BFI Film Audience Network, is delivering a limited tour with in-person speaker opportunities available – Email [email protected] am ragor o wybodaeth.

Note from Linnea Pettersson (FAN Socioeconomic Champion)

Across media, politics – and society in general, really – working class life and its intersections has been mocked, patronised, exploited, commodified and demonised. With less than 10% of people working in Film & TV coming from working class backgrounds, there’s a real imbalance when it comes to who is involved in the representation of diversity across the UK and Northern Ireland on our screens. So, we need to be bringing working class voices to our screens to tell the stories they want to tell.

I know from speaking with exhibitors over the last couple of years that there can be discomfort in signposting things as ‘working class’, and I get it. Why should we have to? But, as with other aspects of identity – particularly those that are marginalised – by platforming voices and raising awareness of the issues faced by people who do hold this as an important part of themselves, we can take steps to shape places and programmes that may have felt exclusionary to be more welcoming and inclusive.

Do the films in this package all speak to class directly? No and they shouldn’t have to. Is there a thematic link between them all, besides them being shorts made by working class filmmakers? No and there doesn’t have to be. Programming Uncommon Voices is an opportunity to make space for the creativity of working class people. It’s for audiences who want to support people who come from similar, or completely different backgrounds or life experiences. It’s for creatives who want to connect, explore contemporary work and get inspired. It’s for people who like short films. You could also screen shorts made by working class filmmakers local to you. Depending on how you present the programme, it could be an opportunity for working class people to learn about routes into the industry. The approach will depend on your audience aims and strategies, and I can support you with your ideas and planning, if you’d like.

If you want to contact Linnea, you can reach her yma.

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CY