Little Bird

What immediately struck me about this story was that despite being set in 1941, it appeared to be saying something that to this point I’d not seen on screen. Here was a narrative about a young woman using the war to broaden her horizons, to escape the monotony of a life planned out before she was even born. And when I began looking into it, it quickly became clear that this was a pretty universal narrative. Hundreds of thousands of women, from hard up working class families to upper class aristos, were using the war as a means of escape and adventure; something pretty incomprehensible in today’s world.

It was also particularly fascinating to me that in 2016, nearly everyone I mentioned the story to, male or female, recoiled when I got to the part about our protagonist leaving behind a young child, proving that such stigma is still very much alive and well - and as a result compelling me to challenge it! Male characters leave behind their children in real and fictitious stories every day of the week, so how is it that people won’t look past this outdated prejudice to read situations for what they actually are - incredibly nuanced and shaped by individual circumstance.

Needless to say by the time Emily mentioned she was keen to work with a predominantly female crew, I was hooked. Gender bias in the industry is something I feel passionately about, and although I think we’d all like to work towards a future where everything is completely meritocratic, I strongly believe that in order to get there, we need to make more films with women in HoD roles and allow that to trickle down.

The decision to shoot on film was a significant one. One which I’m really glad we managed to pull off with sponsorship from KODAK. Like any artist, I believe a filmmaker should own the right to choose the medium that fits their particular story. And for this, 16mm was the one - for various reasons including the 1941 setting and the fact that I drew almost all my visual references for the film from street photographers of the period. If filmmakers don’t get the chance to shoot analogue at this point in their careers, I worry it will die out - so I’m really pleased we managed to follow through on this pledge.

What followed was an incredibly enlightening experience for me, pooling inspiration and ideas with our insanely talented team and working out the best way to visually translate this story, which in a nutshell focussed on fusing visual symbolism with nuanced performances and textured sound design.

Moving forward I’m really excited about the possibility of sharing this lovingly created film with audiences and potentially opening up a wider discussion about women’s experience both during the war in our society today.

Thank you.

Georgia Oakley
Director