Dead Body
A non-binary individual is trapped, fearful of something trying to break in. As they try to protect themself, their chances of escaping a monster with a familiar face diminish fast.
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J Taylor-JonesDirectorOne Summer on Earth, Baggage
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J Taylor-JonesWriterOne Summer on Earth
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Harry Kille-SmithProducerBaggage
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J Taylor-JonesProducerOne Summer on Earth
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Andrew HoughtonKey Cast"Lex"King of Spades, Sinnerman
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Project Type:Short, Student
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Genres:Horror, LGBTQ+
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Runtime:9 minutes 59 seconds
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Completion Date:February 27, 2024
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Production Budget:4,750 GBP
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Country of Origin:United Kingdom
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Country of Filming:United Kingdom
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:Yes - Arts University Bournemouth
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Dead Northern Horror Film FestivalYork
United Kingdom
September 27, 2024
World Premiere
Official Selection -
Out For Blood Queer Horror FestivalCambridge
United Kingdom
November 3, 2024
Official Selection -
CineCity Brighton Film FestivalBrighton
United Kingdom
November 11, 2024
Official Selection -
One Fluid Night LGBTQIA+ Film FestivalLondon
United Kingdom
November 15, 2024
Best Dark Thrill Short Film (Nominee)
J Taylor-Jones (they/them) is a non-binary British filmmaker based in Brighton. J's filmmaking is influenced by their training in fine art to tell stories that texturally and emotionally navigate the Queer experience. They are the founder of production company Burning Closets Films and currently write about and programme films with the screening collective Depot Cinelogue.
I have a dead name. I leave it behind, but it is still there, a piece of my past that, as hard as I try to erase it, remains. It's behind me, it's not gone. From time to time, it pops up; on old documents and in texts from people who once knew me by that name. It's an experience that I, and many people who, like me, identify as transgender, share, but it's not just a dead name. Sometimes I see old photographs, from the days before I discovered makeup or bought the clothes that I feel comfortable in, I see the photos, and I know that, like my dead name, my physical past - my dead body - is something that I can't simply erase - this body is my vehicle through life, and sometimes it's my biggest enemy.
Being trans is to be acutely aware of one's own corporeal presence, it's to understand the judgements people make in a split second to categorise you in an attempt to understand the world around them. As much as we know and can preach about the fluidity of gender and its base in society's constructs, when the majority of the population see facial hair as a signifier of manhood and breasts as signifiers of womanhood, the very state of being becomes a battle between self perception and society perceiving.
Dead Body is inspired by the nights of this turmoil, when the brain is at its weakest and turning on itself following a day spent in the epicentre of misgenderings, scornful stares and breaking news of our demonisation and erasure. These things can make even our own homes feel like unsafe spaces, spaces that might be invaded by our closest foes; our own damning thoughts - am I trans enough?
This film is an account of this situation, a nightmare in which perceived gender is an antagonist, a hellscape in which the devil is the stubble on one's chin, or their deep voice and broad shoulders. This is transness at its most vulnerable, a reminder to our allies that we don't need political oppression to harm us - sometimes our inner turmoil is much worse.