PATIENCE

Patience is a fantastic project with real heart and soul, based on true events and anecdotes from co-writer Hayley’s mother’s nursing diaries. Upon reading first-time filmmakers Hayley and Angus’ script, you could sense the authenticity bleeding off the page from the very first sight of the medical equipment in the boot of our district nurse Flora’s car. There was an economy to the writing but also a keen attention to detail which really spoke to my filmmaking sensibility of doing a lot with a little. At its core, this is a story of redemption and the rekindling of the spark you once had for something you loved.

Patience is a two hander buddy drama/comedy with a social conscience. I love intimate stories where you can really work with the actors, building world’s where we can see clear character arcs and story development even in the short film format. A few months ago, a filmmaker friend and I were talking about a documentary he was shooting at a food bank in Brixton. I was shocked when he told me teachers and nurses were included in the crowd. After I read the script, this memory immediately came back to me. The powers that be are playing on human decency to do the right thing, but in essence, they are being asked to sacrifice themselves. In our own small way, we want to provide an intimate look through the keyhole into the lives of NHS nurses in the UK, humanise their experience rather than make them part of a statistic, just as they humanise their profession for those most in need.

Having started out focusing primarily on directing drama, I have found myself increasingly drawn to blending the drama genre with comedy. I recently directed the comedy/drama HIGHS and co-wrote/directed comedy ROADMAN AU PAIR (currently doing the film festival circuit) to add to tense drama STATIONARY. Patience feels like exploring a world I know well from a technical perspective (Stationary was primarily filmed in a car) but with a completely different story, heroes and added comedic levity to the hard hitting dramatic moments. A reference point for Patience is Jack Rooke’s BIG BOYS for its hilarious, heartwarming as well as heart wrenching tone.

We are passionate about Patience being an authentic Midlands tale, where our co-writer/lead actor Hayley hails from and where many of the details in her mother’s diaries take place. The theme of place and the uniqueness of place is very important to us, not just to do justice to the source material but also for our project to stand out and be different. From the road signs and paving stones to the suburban residential housing our district nurses visit — the key is in the detail.