Time and Tide offers trilogy of short films in Chichester

Writer and co-producer Lucy Nordberg brings a trilogy of short films to the next Chichester FilmMakers event at the Assembly Room in Chichester on October 31.

She will be guest speaker to give the background to the films which star Sam West, Greta Scacchi and John Locke.

“The section in which Sam West performs on the stage of the Theatre Royal in Brighton is called Homecoming, and this upcoming event in Chichester is something of a homecoming for me,” Lucy said.

“It's a trilogy of short films where I was testing out the use of dramatic verse in film. I've moved from theatre to film, and I thought I would see the potential of using dramatic verse because so many actors can really knock it out of the park when it comes to verse drama.

“The films are all very loosely connected through the idea of time, how we approach the past and how we are trapped in a particular period of time with our memories of the past and our hopes for the future. The three poems in the three films are all quite different in setting but we have been lucky enough to get some really great actors.

“Each of the films is about five minutes. The whole thing is about 15 minutes long. They were going to be separate but it came together really well as something to watch all the way through. They are three very different actors but all working to the same kind of brief. It has got quite a classical style. It is one person speaking to camera but the location is important and it does have quite a screen feel to it but there is a theatricality to it as well.”

They were made during the lockdown.

The Sam West film touches on Odysseus: “And this will be the first screening of the film since the release of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, which gives some interesting context!

“The theatre had been dark for weeks because of lockdown and we filmed it on an empty stage, about Odysseus coming home and not finding a hero's welcome. The empty theatre was relevant in a way and it just worked really well.

“Time and Tide did well on the festival circuit, winning awards including Best UK Short Film at the London Independent Film Festival and Best International Short Film at the Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema.

“There's quite a bit of local interest as the sequence starring Greta Scacchi, who lives in Sussex, was filmed on West Wittering beach, where I spent a lot of time as a child.

“John Locke, who starred in the second film, is a character actor based near Brighton and has had roles in films including The Favourite, Poor Thing and Vindication Swim and on TV, most recently in Channel 4's Big Mood. He'll be appearing on stage with me at the Chichester FilmMakers event to talk about the making of Time and Tide.”

More details on https://lucynordberg.com/