Experiencing Interruptions?

Siren

A story of lust and desire, of identity and sexuality. Elizabeth, an English rose, falls for Sirena, a mysterious sensuous Spanish woman. From their initial meeting Elizabeth feels an overwhelming attraction for Sirena that grows with intensity; all complicated by Elizabeth’s on / off relationship with local guy Tom.

  • Louise Marie Cooke
    Director
    First Bite (short)
  • Louise Marie Cooke
    Writer
    First Bite (short)
  • Louise Marie Cooke
    Producer
    First Bite (short)
  • Shian Denovan
    Key Cast
    Sawney: Flesh of Man (feature)
  • Valeria Vereau
    Key Cast
    Welcome to Harmony (feature)
  • Christian Kinde
    Key Cast
    Plastic (feature)
  • Laura Bellingham
    Director of Photography
    The Line (short)
  • Neil Fergusson
    Editor
    Kulajo: My Heart Is Darkened (TV Movie documentary)
  • Victoria Wijeratne
    Composer
    The Liability (feature)
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    LGBT, women, drama
  • Runtime:
    23 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    June 15, 2014
  • Production Budget:
    10,000 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Arri Alexa
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.35:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Iris Prize Festival
    Cardiff, UK
    October 11, 2014
    UK Premier
    Nominated: Best British Short
  • Underwire Festival
    London, UK
    November 15, 2014
    London Premier
    Nominated: Best Cinematography
  • Mix Brasil Festival Culture of Diversity
    Brazil
    November 19, 2014
    Latin American Premier
  • London Short Film Festival
    London, UK
    January 11, 2015
  • Borderlines Festival
    Hertfordshire, UK
    March 1, 2015
  • Queer Vision
    Bristol, UK
    April 26, 2015
  • Inside Out Toronto LGBT Festival
    Toronto, Canada
    May 21, 2015
    Canadian Premier
  • Fairy Tales Festival
    Calgary, Canada
    May 29, 2015
  • Eros: Lisbon Erotic Film Festival
    Lisbon, Portugal
    June 11, 2015
    Portuguese Premier
  • Frameline
    San Francisco, USA
    June 24, 2015
    USA Premier
  • Las Vegas Lift Off Film Festival
    Las Vegas, USA
    June 26, 2015
  • Image+Nation LGBT Film Festival
    Montreal
    Canada
    November 28, 2015
Director Biography - Louise Marie Cooke

Louise is a writer and director making films with complex female characters at the centre of the narrative. Her previous short films have screened both at home in the UK and internationally at renowned festivals including LSFF, Frameline: San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival and InsideOut Toronto.

Louise studied at the Northern Media School, and began working as a producer on independent short films and promos including the award winning Film London short Physical Education (2010). The following year she moved into directing, making her non student debut with the Film London backed coming of age film First Bite (2011).

This was followed up with Siren (2014), a 23 minute short which focuses on the sexual awakening of Elizabeth, a young woman who meets an older Spanish woman and begins to question her mundane life in a quiet English coastal town.

In 2015 Louise made her first non-fiction film with Alice: A Social Media Journey. Alice is a short social media bio-doc commissioned by the joint university research project ‘ReeLives’ which looks at digital personal data and the online personas.

More recently Louise was selected for the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2016 Talent Lab and Film London’s ‘London Calling 2017’ short film fund in conjunction with the Eastern Edge Film Fund. Her latest short film is Pillow Talk, a short coming of age film set in the early 90’s which will begin its festival run shortly.

http://louisemariecooke.com/

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Siren came about from the wish to express the moment where a person is hit out of nowhere by a sudden rush of desire that knocks them off their feet. The intense feeling that confuses even the most straight forward sensible people; desire that makes a person lose a grip on normality. In Siren, the result is intensified as Elizabeth is already a character struggling with her sexual identity at the beginning of the film and so when she meets Sirena the desire unlocks a part of her fully for the first time and as a result she goes on a crazy spiral of confusing self-destruction. The end of the film is deliberately ambiguous, with some people reading into it as a suicide attempt. For me the end of the film is one of acceptance and cleansing, of letting go and stripping back from everything that is holding Elizabeth back from being who she is. With the act of stripping naked and swimming, she is the one taking control of her future and saying this is me.