Eelyn Lee's latest film Monster will have it's London Premiere at Close-Up Film Centre in Shoreditch at 8pm on Sat 5th March.
Inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Monster marks Eelyn's first iteration of her two-year investigation in to improvised filmmaking. Shot during a 5-day Lab at the Barbican with a group of 18 collaborating actors and artists including BAFTA/Palme d’Or winner Anamaria Marinca [4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days], the project was supported by Arts Council England.
Eelyn is currently developing the work through a residency with Metal, an artistic lab on the Thames estuary where she is extending collaboration to local people, collecting stories of fear associated with the river.
Monster is programmed alongside Bill Morrison’s Spark of Being as part of The Modern Prometheus weekend.
After the screening Eelyn will be in conversation with Gareth Evans, Film Curator, Whitechapel.
Essex County Council have awarded Eelyn Lee a grant of £2000 to create a series of moving image portraits on and around Canvey Island.
Next year Eelyn will collaborate with residents from Canvey Island and Benfleet to make a series of film portraits of local people. Capturing their dreams, memories and stories of fear associated with the estuary, the films will be projected in local outdoor sites before featuring in the Estuary Festival 2016.
As a development of Monster, her experiment in improvised filmmaking which began with a 5-day Lab at the Barbican last December, Eelyn will continue to explore notions of fear. She is particulalrly interested in hearing about how the storm of 1953 plays a role in the collective memory of the area and how living below sea-level effects the pysche of a place.
For the third year running Eelyn Lee will be delivering the BFI Film Academy at the Barbican. Eelyn has designed a creative approach to guiding 15-19 year old filmmakers through a collaborative process to make micro shorts inspired by seminal British films.
To coincide with the 2016 commemorations marking 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare this year we will be making two short Shakespeare-inspired films.
Watch one of last year's films inspired by Hitchcock's Rear Window here.
An Ealing Trilogy was made through Eelyn Lee's commission by the National Portrait Gallery, London and was made in collaboration with young people from Brentside High School, Ealing.
The film will screen as part of the 'Role Reversal' programme on Wednesday 24th June at 9pm. More details here
This year Eelyn Lee is looking forward to developing her feature-length film, MONSTER. Following last year's successful first stage of development supported by the Barbican and Arts Council England, Eelyn is now seeking support to take the project in to an estuary setting.
In December 2014 Eelyn led a team of collaborating artists, performers and musicians through a 5-day lab in the Barbican's studio theatre, exploring new ways of making moving image work through processes of improvisation.
Three working days later, Eelyn and the 'Monster Team' showcased three edited scenes filmed during the lab. Writer and curator Gareth Evans [Whitechapel Gallery] who presented the event said,
"...The idea that we would see something translated so profoundly from a theatrical space to a cinematic one in just a handful of days is really extraordinary... the process starts ironically in a theatre space and becomes more cinematic as it goes on. A wonderful paradox..."
Taking it's inspiration from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Monster explores notions of demons, fear and otherness, using the setting of the estuary as location.
Eelyn is currently looking to transfer the process, characters and stories to a real setting along the Thames Estuary. Please get in touch if you would like to join the conversation, particularly if you have links with the estuary.
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Read Gareth Evans's article about the 5-day lab here.
Eelyn Lee has been selected by Artquest to put together a group of artists working at the forefront of social and collaborative practice to form a PEER FORUM. Between February and July 2016 the group will meet once a month at Peckham Platform to reflect on each other's work and exchange ideas around process driven arts practice.
With 20 years experience of collaborative working in a range of settings Eelyn has brought together a dynamic group of artists all of whom make work through varying degrees of social engagement. Over the six months they will explore how artists engage with community, histories and place and the politics that create the contexts for these.
In light of Assemble’s recent win of the Turner Prize they we will aim to take an overview of the history of community arts practice with an eye on how it could develop in the future.
Follow their discussions and find out about the artists taking part on their blog, Collaborative Arts Practice.
This month Eelyn Lee will be spending three weeks at Metal, an artistic lab on the Thames Estuary. Metal have offered Eelyn a residency at their Chalkwell Hall base in Southend to continue her two-year exploration of collaborative filmmaking.
Following last year's 5-day lab at the Barbican which was supported by Arts Council England, Eelyn will be further developing ideas around notions of fear and monsters by exploring local stories associated with the river.
Eelyn will be talking to groups of people with connections to the estuary including the fishing community in Leigh-on-Sea; dock workers at Tilbury and residents on Canvey Island.
The research will inform a further two moving image works and will culminate in the making of a long form film in 2017.
The first iteration of the project, Monster made during the Barbican lab will premiere at the BAFTA Qualifying Aesthetica Short Film Festival [5th - 8th Nov 2015] in York. Taking inspiration from Shelley's Frankenstein, the film tells the story of monster created from other people's fear and features BAFTA / Palme d'Or winning actress Anamaria Marinca [4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days].
Pleased to announce that Eelyn Lee's latest moving image work, Monster [16mins] has been selected for this year's BAFTA Qualifying Aesthetica Short Film Festival.
The festival runs from 5th - 8th Novemver 2015 in the historic city of York, UK.
An Ealing Trilogy is now available to watch online. Following a three month exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery last summer, the film went on to be displayed at Pitzhanger Manor Gallery and was selected for Les Rencontres Internationales, a festival celebrating new cinema and contemporary art in Paris.
The 7-minute film was made by Eelyn Lee in collaboration with students from Brentside High School as part of last year's Creative Connections project at the National Portrait Gallery.
Last night in Barbican Cinema 2 writer, producer and curator Gareth Evans presented some of the edited results of Eelyn Lee's 5-day Monster Lab. Last week Eelyn led a group of 18 collaborating performers, musicians and artists through an experimental process in the Barbican's studio theatre, to find new ways of creating improvised film. Loosely inspired by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the project explored notions of monster, demons and fear, using the setting of the estuary to locate the work.
Evans had visited the Lab on Day 4 and observed the process in action. After seeing the three scenes projected in the cinema, his first comment to the audience was:
"...The idea that we would see something translated so profoundly from a theatrical space to a cinematic one in just a handful of days is really extraordinary... the process starts ironically in a theatre space and becomes more cinematic as it goes on. A wonderful paradox..."
Eelyn Lee and long-term editor/composer Francis Morgan-Giles spent three days editing the footage shot by cinematographer Dominik Rippl. The results are three scenes of a monster story: the river; the hideout and the market. Lee says,
'We have enough footage to cut together four more scenes to complete the story cycle. I am really pleased with the results which are dark, full of suspense and evoke a strong sense of the estuary. We have truly created a new visual language through this unique process. It's very exciting.'
Eelyn is currently looking to transfer the process, characters and stories to a real setting along the Thames Estuary and further develop the work to create a feature length film.
Friday, 17 May 2019 Yesterday we wrapped on the Britishness film! We had a great shoot up at Park Hill as the summer sun set over Sheffield. Thanks to everyone who's travelled with us on this fascinating journey in to exploring our nation identity. Watch this space for updates about screenings. Left to right: Dan, Fionn, Ross, Eelyn, Shannon, L & Warda. Read More...
Friday, 26 April 2019 "From the opening address, I began to see the Summit as a social practice project in its own right" - Cara Courage The Research Publication about the Social Art Summit officially launched at the Tate Exchange yesterday and is now available to download Read More...
