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18th british shorts, berlin

Hannah Renton
love is free
LoveIsFree_1.20.1 18.11.55.jpg

FESTIVAL SCREENING

Sat 25.1. 19:00 / Acudkino 1​

CAST

Delilah O’Riordan,

Julie Maguire

Melissa Batchelor

Tom Padley

Eddie Webber

Charlotte Hunter

JAN, 23, 2025

“Love is Free” is a triptych telling the story of one woman’s relationship with love and how it has been shaped by her relationship with her eccentric father.

 

Hi Hannah, how does it feel to be at the18th British Shorts, Berlin, with your short Love is Free?

 

Great! It’s everything you want from a festival great programming, great city and cute Kino’s.

Love is Free has already had a great festival run so far, what has it meant to see your short get such a great reception from festivals?

It’s interesting as this was the first film I put straight online and didn’t wait or necessarily aim to have a strong festival run. This was a bit of an experiment in distribution! So it’s been a really nice surprise to see the success that it has had. It’s also a film where I really just experimented, took risks and didn’t take the safe option to make it work, so it’s been cool to see that pay off. 

How important are festivals like British Shorts, Berlin, in creating a platform for short films and filmmakers? 

So important! It’s not just showing the films but it’s creating connections with each other as well as audiences. And I always find it really exciting and interesting to see how and what my film has been programmed with. How it intersects with the specific audience of the festival and place, as well has with the films around it. 

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?

It’s really interesting that you ask this as I’m currently in the process of organising a ‘tour’ for my most recent short film GOSSIP. The idea is to get it to audiences outside of film festivals and screen it in museums, book shops, gallery spaces, archives etc.

It came out of a local screening I did at a social centre (House of Annetta in London) which just had a really excited, engaged and diverse audience. As Gossip is a historical drama - set in a particular place (East Anglia) and speaks to a history (the witch hunts) that people really care about - I really wanted it to reach those people. The response has been really amazing and I’ve had a lot of local support.

We haven’t actually officially announced the tour yet but do give the instagram page a follow: @gossip_the_tour and there will be announcements soon!

LIF Poster with Berlin_Hi Res.png

Can you tell me how Love is Free came about? What was the inspiration behind your screenplay?

The screenwriter, Aleksandra Sykulak, and I wanted to work together but couldn’t quite find the right project or idea. We talked a lot about our families, and both had experience of challenging but very charismatic fathers. We also both had ideas that the second chapter emerged from and at some point we realised that they might be part of the same story. I was really excited about the idea of a triptych and wanted to do something more formal than I had in my previous films. Then when the DOP Nina Oyens came on early, we got excited about how we might shoot these three chapters across time and really it just went from there.

When working on a short film how flexible do you allow yourself with your screenplay?

I like to be flexible because I think openness and responsiveness make the most exciting work. But it of course depends a lot on what you’re shooting and how. You can obviously create problems for yourself by being flexible (but I still sometimes feel like I want to grab the magic - even if it means something else is less perfect, or I have to work something else out down the line). With my most recent film we had a birth and a fight scene, and so of course with those you have to be a lot more technical. But even then you lock down what you need to and keep openness where you can. This quote from Agnes Varda really reflects my feelings on this:

“A film should be like a living thing or an organism that finds its own way. I always say that chance is my first assistant, because I'm always ready to see whatever comes along, ready to change my point-of-view in order to take advantage of what's happening.”

How important was the creative collaboration between you and your team when working on a short like Love is Free?

Elements of Love is Free were more personal but the film still exists in the collaborations. Maybe I have a naturally rebellious nature, but I’m really resistant to the idea that there’s a right way of doing things. So with each project I like to experiment and follow what feels right in terms of process for the project and for the specific creative relationships. 

For example, the sound designer, Simon Panayi, made sonic storyboards at script stage. This was a first for both of us. It was really exciting and so useful early on, but then we actually felt that it got in our way once we were in post. I definitely would do it again but next time I’d do something much more tonal and mood based or looking at really specific sounds.  

Then Nina Oyens, the DOP, and I got so excited about shooting each chapter on a different format. The dream was to shoot the opening on 16mm, the middle on VHS and the third chapter on digital. In the end we couldn’t do this in practice, but Gaffer Mark Lane and Colourist Mara Ciorba, really helped us to create looks for each chapter which reflected this idea. 

LoveIsFree_1.57.1.jpg

"Elements of Love is Free were more personal but the film still exists in the collaborations."

Who are some of the filmmakers that have inspired you?

Agnes Varda, Alice Rohrwacher, Shane Meadows…. anyone who is really bold and playful with form, and whose films have a lot of heart, a deep questioning and a curious and loving gaze towards people. 

Is there any advice you wish you had been given when you started your filmmaking journey?

Don’t try to please! Focus on what interests you, take risks and experiment - don’t be scared of failure. No matter who happens, your relationship to your work is the most important thing. 

© 2025 The New Current

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