Directors' Lab 2009

Film Network meets the proud selectees for this year's Director's Lab, as they prepare to travel up to Edinburgh.

For the second year in succession the UK Film Council have teamed up with Lifesize Pictures, Skillset, Scottish Screen and the Edinburgh Film Festival to provide this development scheme that offers six chosen emerging filmmakers the chance to work with key industry talent to hone their filmmaking skills.

The scheme is run during the Edinburgh Film Festival and aims to equip the six selected filmmakers with the skills, contacts, collaborations and knowledge they need to develop their careers and feature films, focusing on the exploration and development of the director's voice, confidence and vision.

This year's chosen few are a group of filmmakers who should be familiar to Film Network regulars, most of them having been long-term presences on the site (see the links to their profiles on the right). They will be mentored by a prestigious array of industry veterans including David Thompson, Robert Jones, Paul Frazer, Tony Grisoni and Kerry Fox. Producer/Director Stephen Woolley will be the patron of the scheme for the second year running.

We caught up with five of the six entrants not long after they learnt about their participation in the scheme, and we asked them about their aspirations for this exciting prospect.

Watch the video interviews above and see below for biographies of all the featured talents.

Chris Shepherd, Writer/Director

Chris is an acclaimed animation and live actor writer/director. He set up Polkadot Productions in 1995. There he produced BAFTA nominated The World Of Interiors (2001), and directed multi-award winning film The Broken Jaw (1997) for Channel 4 and the award winning Stareout sketches in BBC/Talkback's Big Train. In 2000 he co-founded Slinky Pictures, where he wrote and directed short films including BIFA winner and BAFTA nominated Dad's Dead (2002), Who I Am And What I Want (co-directed with David Shrigley in 2002) and TCM Classic Shorts Award winner Silence Is Golden (2006). He is currently developing a feature film for Film4, and is in pre-production on his new short, Bad Night For The Blues.

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Deborah Haywood, Writer/Director

Deborah's first short Lady Margaret (2007) screened at festivals worldwide. In the same year she was named as a Star of Tomorrow by Screen International. She recently finished her second short film Tender (2009), written by Roger Hadfield, and is currently developing new shorts Sis and Shit Fly. Deborah is also developing two features: BITE, with Sally Hibbin and the UK Film Council's First Feature Development Fund, and Pin Cushion with Tina Pawlik and EM Media.

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Esther May Cambell, Writer/Director

Self-taught in the world of independent film production, Esther has experience ranging from directing full 35mm drama productions to on-the-fly shooting and editing. She's directed prime-time TV serials, sex education films in South Wales and corporate drama for and about randy sailors. Her captivating, cinematic stories tell of lost souls, tragic lovers, limbo lives, daydreamers, musical wonder and door slammers. With latest short film September (2008) winning this year's BAFTA, Esther has been selected by Zentropa and Sigma Films to work on an original feature. She is also developing an adaptation with Robyn Slovo and a book adaptation with Ben Slater.

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Johnny Barrington, Writer/Director

Johnny attended the Glasgow School of Art and the Gothenburg School of Photography & Film. He went on to direct experimental short films and several pop promos, which screened on MTV. His recent short films include the Scottish BAFTA nominated Trout (2006) which screened at festivals worldwide including Sundance and Terra Firma (2007), a UK Film Council/Film4 funded Cinema Extreme film set on a North Sea ferry. Johnny is currently developing feature film Aberdeen Angus with the UK Film Council, a story about a boy racer sucked into a vortex of lust and guilt.

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Avie Luthra, Writer/Director

Avie is an award winning writer/director who has worked on short films, features, TV dramas, documentary and radio. In 2003 he wrote an episode of the high-profile BBC series, Canterbury Tales (2003) and won the Dennis Potter Award for his 60 minute BBC film, Indian Dream (2003). He was named as a Star of Tomorrow by Screen International in 2004. His short film Lucky (2005) won 42 awards and was BAFTA nominated and Oscar® shortlisted. In 2007 he devised the Radio 4 drama, The Prospect, currently in its second series. His first feature Mad, Sad & Bad (2009) premieres in the British Gala section at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2009.

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Corinna Faith, Writer/Director

Corinna graduated from the University of Westminster in 1996 with first-class honours in Film and Video Arts. In 1998 she won a Channel 4 competition to direct her first short film, Deep Water (1998), a documentary about depression. Her short film, Ashes (2004) screened at numerous festivals and was nominated for the TCM Classic Shorts Award. In 2006 she was named as a Star of Tomorrow by Screen International. The same year, her short film Care (2006) was nominated for a BAFTA. Corinna was recently selected to direct The Thai Bride (2008) for the highly competitive Channel 4 drama scheme Coming Up, and she is currently developing her first feature length screenplay This Little Piggy, in collaboration with Warp X.

Interviews: James Rocarols; Video: Stephen Bailey

Published 19 June 09