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Written and performed by Nathan Dunn.

Additional instrumentation: Alex Charles. Additional mixing: Dan Green.

“The Tall Man’s Coat” is a spine-tingling, bone-chilling tale of the consequences of taking what does not belong to you… Lewis Brown is a writer based in Newcastle. Learn more about Lewis’ work: https://linktr.ee/lewisbrownpoet For October 2023 Lewis is running Spooky Poem Month, with weekly writing challenges through his Instagram and Discord. Learn more: https://linktr.ee/lewisbrownpoet

This short silent film was made in response to a callout from soundpedro and was screened as part of the 2023 festival, on June 3rd at Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, California. It was also screened online and is archived here: youtube.com/watch?v=iYeDYQugZ1c

‘Sounding Skin casts the midriff in a starring role, witnessing a belly as it is pummeled and then adorned. A part of the body that is much maligned and punished, whilst it busily does precious work for the whole, the belly is here a silent performer, inviting potential synesthetic responses and/or imagined aural responses from the viewer.’

Concept and performance by Ruby Lawrence
Cinematography and colour by Saturn Akin

Official music video for ‘Keep Time’, the final single from Dilettante’s debut album ‘Tantrum’. To purchase a physical copy of the record please go here.

Directed + Edited by Francesca Pidgeon
Shot + Colour Graded by Jake Thompson (Light in the Tower)
Starring Adam Pardey, Xunzhou Xu + Francesca Pidgeon
Assistant Aaron Collins-Wood

Pinwheel commissioned the Squad to find eight poets to respond to the themes The Power of Poetry and The Power of Together. We met for a joint writing session on Zoom then a week later Riley Bramley-Dymond and Tom Stephens filmed our pieces. The poets read at civic receptions for the teams in Hull, Newcastle, Warrington and Leeds and the films were shown in the stadia before matches.

The Squad writers taking part were Lauren Vevers, Jay Mitra, Rory Thorp, Yasmin Roe, Jasmine Gray, James Giddings, Henna Ravjibhai and Nasim Rebecca Asl.

Dear Wife (Louise Essex) performs her song The Tempter in a live video recorded in a church in Hertfordshire. Music written and performed by Dear Wife. Shot by the wonderful Alex Dunkley.

In this short, Celestine Stilwell performs their poem ‘Golden Hour’ as video art for Ink Sweat & Tears.

The video features Celestine Stilwell with Emily Oliver, directed by Jonny McCausland.

A young man. A night out. In this short, Squad writer Matthew Ingram explores the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on queer spaces, and the impact that that could have on queer people. Produced by Roots Touring for York Theatre Royal, performed by Robbie O’Neill.

In April 2020, a few weeks after Europe had entered lockdown, twenty-one writers living in the UK, France and Germany agreed to collaborate with artist and Squad Core Team member Stevie Ronnie to make an experimental film. ‘A Diary of Windows & Small Things’ is the result of that experiment. These rare and moving glimpses into our shrinking world were written, shot and recorded by the writers themselves using only their mobile phones.

Each writer was given a time of day to work with and asked to record the view from their window alongside a new piece of writing. These recordings were then arranged chronologically into a video diary that creatively documents this strange and unique moment in history.

27 mins

The writers who collaborated in the making of this film are (in order of appearance):

Lenni Sanders
Fielding Ronshaugen
Hana Kapetanovic
Ben Taylor
Ellie Streichholz
Jordan Philips
Tom Walters
Libby Williamson
Nasim Asl
Vivienne Burgess
Beth Davies
Finlay Worallo
Lydia Allison
K. Michaelis
Charlotte Carrick
Elizabeth Gibson
Helen Bowell
Jenny O’Sullivan
Jasmine Simms
Louise Essex
Ruth Yates

Title Track: Ugly Year by Francesca Pidgeon.

“My eyes, like windows, have always let me see the world.

But the crack makes me feels it.”

Commissioned by Fly The Flag a collaboration between arts organisations and human rights charities which celebrates and reminds us of the human rights we all share.

Fly The Flag run projects and events throughout the year and come together on 10th December for Human Rights Day. You can read about their latest activity here.

In Riley Bramley-Dymond’s short, a young artist is given a pay cheque and a drug habit, and left to contend with the vices and demons of celebrity. Over the course of a surreal and seemingly endless photoshoot, his life and career slips steadily into chaos.

7m

Prior to travelling to Algeria to research the Karakou jacket, Lydia Hounat sat down to discuss with her father the logistics of getting there and how she would be carrying out her work. Warning this film contains film of violence and its results. This film we be available until 1st October 1st 2020.

The story of a young girl on her psychological and emotional journey as she comes to terms with what is happening to her.

5 mins

Written from personal experiences, Melissa Wuidart-Phillips takes you into the challenges of adapting to new experiences and celebrates the beauty in the smallest of details. The film is a cinematic perspective on the uniqueness of the Asperger’s and celebrates the condition.

Help from the Squad enabled Melissa to work with Rommi Smith to develop the text as part of the Writing Britain project produced by the brilliant Studio 12 in Leeds.

3.5 mins

One (fictional) woman’s experience of Tony Blair, from Oxford University to the Iraq War.

7 mins

A coming of age story about a young boy who must learn to come to terms with his mother’s illness.

9 mins

A Homotopia commission with Ace Ambrose. Decisions no one should ever have to make that we are making anyway.

11 mins

Exploring the way female characters are introduced in scripts. Find new meaning behind their words through an abstract arrangement of objects.

5 mins.

Superwoman explores the complex stigma that surrounds our periods through the world of comic book characters.

5 mins.

Laura, broke and far from home, struggles to fit into her old friend’s new life.

Written and directed by Riley Bramley-Dymond.

10 mins

A young woman walks across London, from the impoverished East End to the gleaming City.

Skipping Lunch offers a portrait of austerity Britain. It is inspired by the stories of young people who have experienced the care system.

Written, co-directed and produced by Ruby Lawrence.

6 mins

Sarah Gonnet examines hoarding from a non-judgemental viewpoint. Through shapes, artwork and soundscapes, Sarah conveys what it is to be an artist living in a hoarding space, and how creativity can be influenced by collecting.

Made for First Acts.  2.5 mins

17 mins

A petty thief breaks into a car but finds more than he bargained for. Written, directed, produced and edited by Ryan Ogden.

3 mins

Lauren Vevers explores the transient nature of friendship in your 20s and what it means to leave.

3 mins

A Square One recording of Francesca Pidgeon and her band Dilettante performing their new single Beg at The Chapel Works, Leeds

Find out more about Dilettante on Facebook and Instagram.

4 mins

Looking for H was made by our Project H group led by Squad writer Lydia Marchant in Hull.

During 2017 we worked with writers Jess Lewis, Jodie Eve and Jonah Kensett. When we decided we wanted to make a film and brought in Manchester Squad member and film maker Riley Bramley-Dymond.

After a few evenings of planning and deciding on the individual stories we wanted to tell, we spent a wet July weekend with the team and their friends then Riley went away and weaved them together.

11 mins