AFU Fiction comes First at Future Film Festival

Congratulations to AFU members James Yan and Charly Clive, whose powerful fiction film Inside won the Best Fiction Film Award at the BFI’s Future Film Festival at the National Film Theatre in London last weekend. The film, which James wrote and directed in January 2011, explores the difficult subject of domestic violence and posed many new challenges for director and cast alike. Before writing the script, James talked to several victims of domestic violence, realizing the script would have to reflect the experiences of those who were willing to talk about the terrors they’d faced if it was to do them justice. Their experiences also informed James’s approach to cinematography which, instead of using a tripod and the best camera available to him, involved a small handheld camera that gave unsteady, grainy images to suggest covert filming. The story’s main character is trying to capture evidence of what is happening to her at home without being found out. For Charly Clive, whose performance in the lead role was itself worthy of an award, there was the further challenge of having to film herself for a number of the scenes. The film represents a significant advance for the AFU into the world of fiction, so its success at the Future Film Festival is especially welcome.