BFI FUTURE FILM FESTIVAL 2025
conor toner
Everything Looks Simple from a Distance
FESTIVAL SCREENING
Friday 21 February 2025 15:00
FEB, 17, 2025
It's 1969 and America has yet to arrive on the moon. In a workshop in County Armagh, an idealistic inventor is drawing up plans for his own space mission. Around him, the political tensions and violence that are to become synonymous with Northern Ireland are mounting, and he believes that the country is in desperate need of a shared goal to work towards. A higher purpose. Briefcase in hand, he sets out on a series of pitches to try and sell his dream of the future to politicians, priests and paramilitaries. Noah is convinced that the best route to peace, is via the moon.
Hi Conor, how does it feel to be at the BFI Future Film Festival this month with Everything Looks Simple from a Distance?
I did the BFI Film Academy in Armagh when I was a teenager and then studied sound on a two week residential at the NFTS. Once our films were done we watched them in the Southbank. That whole course was such an inspiring experience, so to be back at the Southbank showing a film I wrote and directed, it’s a very rewarding full circle!
Everything Looks Simple was nominated for Best British Short at the 2024 Iris Prize. What did it mean to you to get this type of recognition for your film?
It was amazing! Iris Prize brings together some of the best queer films of the year, so to be included in that lineup was such a complement. They run such a warm, inviting and fun festival. I met some great filmmakers and it was my first time in Cardiff, I’m a big fan now!
How important are festivals like BFI Future Film Festival, in creating a platform for short films and filmmakers?
Considering that short films generally aren’t distributed or shown in cinemas, without festivals you wouldn’t get to see your film on a big screen with real audiences. The cinema is where I’ve always loved watching films the most, where the images carry the most weight and where people pay the most attention, so that’s the first thing for me. Then of course it’s sharing it with a wider audience, and the recognition of an established festival which is really important for people taking you and your films seriously.
Short films are a vital medium in the film industry, yet there are few opportunities for the public, outside of festivals, to see them. What more can be done to make short films more visible and accessible to the wider cinema audiences?
I’ve always loved when feature films are paired with short films. There’s a brilliant night in Belfast - Normal Cinema Club - which does this so well. I think if there was more incentive for cinemas to programme shorts with their features it would make the movie-going experience a bit more of an event for the audience and it would be a great platform for the short filmmakers. Feature films could be paired with shorts like headline acts are at gigs, with the films being shown around the world as a result. Or the cinema itself could programme shorts, giving more creative opportunities for programmers.
Can you tell me a little bit about how Everything Looks Simple from a Distance came about?
I had the idea of the protagonist Noah and the look of the film after watching some archive footage of the Armagh Planetarium in the 60s, I imagined doing a voiceover of the talking head in the video so it would seem like he was very seriously planning a trip to the moon, which seemed kind of bittersweet in the context of Ireland at the time. Cailum Carragher managed to capture this balance beautifully. I also love old buildings, so as me and our wonderful Produce Áine Donnelly went looking for locations, more ideas came out of places we found around Armagh.
When writing a character like Noah do you ever find yourself drawing from yourself or people you’ve met?
My various attempts to get film funding may have influenced Noah's desperate plea.
Was this the first time you shot a short in black and white, this must have been a challenge?
I shot my previous short Waiting for Otto in black and white. I love black and white photography and films, so I was drawn to use it in my own work. Colours can totally shift the mood and look of a scene, so I wanted to strip back some of those options. It also makes the great photography (DOP George A. Barnes) and set design (Joanna McClurg) stand out more I think. Finally, the most simple answer is probably the key reason, it’s set in 1969 so helps sell that time period.
Have you always had a passion about film?
Yes! I used to make sketches with Brendan and Cormac in Colette’s Garage and I guess it’s all grown from there. Going to the cinema was always my birthday event of choice.
How much has your style and filmmaking approach changed since your first shorts I.F.P.B and WAITING FOR OTTO?
I F*ck*d P*dd*ngt*n B**r - a Jimmy J Erotica - was written by, starring and co-directed by Jimmy Justice, they wanted it to be framed like an episode of Jackanory. This definitely got me interested in the actor staring straight into the camera, it seemed like the most direct way to the audience, by looking at them. So I continued with that in Waiting for Otto and ELSFAD. Maybe what changed between the three is that each one has gotten a little simpler than the last. My next one will be so simple it won’t exist.
Looking back, are there any queer films you’ve seen that have really had an impact on you?
A friend showed me Jorgens when I was a teenager, which really moved me. I’m sure I briefly fell in love with the guys in it. Call Me by Your Name had a similar emotional impact. These films are full of longing and sadness which reflects the closet years. This style is beautiful but at some point you need another approach to queerness, so John Waters and Gregg Arakki help you to grab life/film by the horns and ride into the freaky sunset. I love them.
"I’ve watched so many filmmaker advice compilations that, if anything, I have been given too much."
What has been the most valuable lesson you discovered about yourself as a filmmaker during the making of this short?
Maybe how much I love filmmaking. It takes a lot of work to make even a short film, and you can doubt yourself a lot along the way, but once it’s finished and you’ve brought something you thought up to life, it’s a wonderful feeling and you're convinced to go and do the next one.
Is there any advice you wish you had been given when you started your filmmaking journey?
I’ve watched so many filmmaker advice compilations that, if anything, I have been given too much. But at some point I realised it’s ok to want to entertain an audience, so I’ll return to John Waters, “somebody has to like the movie beside the person you're fucking and your mother”.
Moving forward, what themes and subjects are you looking to explore with future films?
I’ve a few films brewing at the minute, namely a gay Irish romance and modern dark fantasy about rediscovering your innocence…any funders reading this?
And finally, what message would you want your audiences to take away from Everything Looks Simple from a Distance?
No comment.