Exciting to be working with Sheffield based writer Désirée Reynolds as well as Hive Young Writers, some of South Yorkshire's most exciting young writing voices. Eelyn Lee has invited both parties to collaborate with her on her film about Britihsness. Together they will be exploring notions of race, identity and belonging and through a process of writing, filming and interviewing will try to discover the meaning of Britihsness today. The film has been commissioned by Football Unites Racism Divides.
Désirée Reynolds is an author, broadcaster, creative writing workshop facilitator, DJ and mentor. Her first novel, Seduce, was published in 2013 to much acclaim from Peepal Tree Press. Her latest work is as editor of the anthology Writing As Resistance, University Of Sheffield, 2018. Désirée is also a trustee with Racial Justice Network.
Hive South Yorkshire is the hub for young writer(14-19s) activity in South Yorkshire including workshops, projects, competitions, publications, groups & open mic events.
The film is programmed in 'Ghost Town', Artist's Film 2. Other films in the Artist Film Programme include Andrew Kötting’s KLIPPERTY KLÖPP Split Screen, a reworking of his 1984 film.
Aesthetica continue to support Eelyn's ongoing Monster Trilogy following their selection of Monster in 2015. Creature of the Estuary will screen on 8th, 11th & 12th November at various locations around York. Tickets available here.
'This universality is the strength of Creature of the Estuary, presenting the shorelines and it’s inhabitants as not only gatekeepers to London but the front line of a nation’s outward looking face' - Dr R.M. Sánchez-Camus
Delighted to annouce that Creature of the Estuary has been selected for the 15th edition of the Bogotá Short Film Festival. The festival received almost 4000 short films from 109 countries around the world and Creature of the Estuary will be the only UK film to screen in the International Fiction Programme. It is a pleasure to have been invited to present the work in Colombia, with it's great tradition of magic realism and the home of the mighty Gabriel García Márquez. The festival runs from 5th - 12th December, 2017.
Eelyn Lee has been invited to devise a new project for the Barbican's Art of Change season.
Working in collaboration with students from Sydney Russell School and commumity members from Barking and Dagenham, Eelyn will make new work to mark the 100 year anniversary of suffrage and the Representation of the People Act in 1918.
Through the project Eelyn is interested in exploring womens' stories with a lens on immigration, race and intersectionality.
Taking place over an academic year, the wider project 18x18 will see eighteen different classes from Sydney Russell School work with eighteen artists/companies including leading theatre company Complicite and beatboxer Bellatrix.
Creature of the Estuarywill premiere at the Whitechapel Gallery, London on Thurs 23rd Feb at 7pm in a special estuary-themed event hosted by Film Curator, Gareth Evans.
Eelyn Lee will be taking part in a Q&A which will be followed by a performance by the Trad Academy Sea Shanty Choir.
Also screening is World Without End [No Reported Incidents], new work by acclaimed essay film-maker Jem Cohen, exploring the lives and locales of the Thames Estuary.
For the first time ever Eelyn Lee's latest film Creature of the Estuary will screen alongside Monster - marking an exciting opportunity to see the first two films in Lee's Monster Trilogy together.
In association with Metal and Focal Point Gallery, the screening will take place at the Forum Lecture Thestre in Southend, in the locality where the film was shot and developed. Eelyn Lee will discuss the making of the work and will be joined by many of her local collaborators from along the South Essex stretch if the Thames.
Last night 180 people sat in deck chairs to watch a special outdoor preview screening of Creature of the Estuary at Coalhouse Fort, Tilbury. Introduced by writer and curator, Gareth Evans [Whitechapel], the film that delves in to the estuary mud to unearth stories of fear and transformation was perfectly placed in this 19th Century defence structure, with the Thames wrapping around it's ramparts just the other side of the make-shift auditorium.
True to the 'lab spirit' used in the making of the film, Eelyn Lee and her editor Francis Morgan-Giles had only finished the film the day before presenting it to an audience at Estuary 2016. After rapturous applause Eelyn introduced some of her many collaborators including BAFTA-winning actress Anamaria Marinca and several local collaborators including vocalist Jess Sweeney from Shoeburyness; Tess McLoughlin from Leigh-on-Sea who made her screen debut as the 8-year old Rita; Carol and Steve Ellis who dive the London Wreck near Southend Pier and Bob Hoy, resident of Canvey Island.
The 22-minute film will have another preview screening locally before it's London Premiere at Whitechapel Gallery on 23rd February, 2017. It is currently being entered in to international festivals.
Read more about the making of the film on the project blog
Wednesday, 29 January 2025 Eelyn has been commissioned to make a new piece of moving image work, to be exhibited at the Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival, 13-29 June, 2025; São Paulo Biennial, Sept, 2025, and the Karachi Biennial, Oct 2026. Building on her research and work made along the Thames Estuary in 2016, Eelyn will continue her exploration of the tidal Thames as a... Read More...
Thursday, 14 November 2024 An illustrated discussion with artist Eelyn Lee and writer-researcher, Dr Yen Ooi about their ongoing collaboration –a call and response creative dialogue between artist and writer. Drawing on migratory energies and ancestral stories, their work creates new orientations, shaped by East and Southeast Asian [ESEA] diasporic experiences. Book FREE... Read More...
Thursday, 15 August 2024 Ancestral Futures 源流之後 is a processional street performance in honour of the first recorded Chinese people in Sheffield –a group of magicians on tour from China who performed at the Whitsuntide Festival, 1855. On 31st May, 1855, the lead magician, Teh Kwei 德貴, buried his 5-week old baby in a Sheffield graveyard.... Read More...
