The Women Now Film Series | Getting Into The Film Industry

Hosted by producer and writer Helen Simmons featuring: Luna Carmoon, Louise Nesbitt, and Milly Thomas . This event is part of The Women Now Film Series at Bermondsey Project Space which centres emerging female filmmakers and celebrates London’s vibrant film scene.

During August 2021 Bermondsey Project Space will be hosting a number of Film screenings and events including panel discussions and talks with the creative teamsProgram:

Doors at 6

Screenings and talk from Luna Carmoon 6:15pm - 7:15pm

Break for drinks

Screenwriting panel 7:30 - 8:30

Producer and writer Helen Simmons talks to filmmaker Luna Carmoon about how she got started in the film industry, why she creates her work, and the experience of making two incredibly well received short films. They will also discuss her process for developing feature films, how to break into and through the cliquey-ness of the creative industries, and what advice she would give to aspiring filmmakers who aren't sure if the world is for them.

Luna Carmoon’s is a self-taught writer-director born n’bred in SE London. Luna is an original, provocative voice. Her writing is funny, dangerous, and subversive with a distinctly modern slant on magical realism. It is rooted in sisterhood, working-class culture, and the mythology of memory, conjuring oddness out of the familiar and blending the mundane with the surreal.

SHAGBANDS for FILM4 premiered at London Film Festival nominated best short and in competition at LSFF. A gang of South London teenage girls in the grip of the 2006 summer heatwave, face the dawn of sexual awakenings and discovery of violence. It is an authentic, semi-autobiographical portrayal of life as a teen and their perceptions of sexuality.

Her first short NOSEBLEED premiered at BFI London Film Festival and was selected into LFF Network programme and Underwire Festival and Sundance Ignite. One of six filmmakers selected as part of Creative England’s ‘ShortFLIX’ initiative, championing underrepresented talent in the UK in partnership with NYT and Sky Arts.

Luna is currently developing her debut feature with BBC and her second, a period piece, with BFI, both dealing with themes of memory, womanhood, and grief. Drawing on her formative years of slow, hot summer days re-watching VHS tapes of incendiary, late-night movies she’d taped the night before, Luna’s only objective in her own creations is to make you feel.

Screenwriting panel: Louise Nesbitt, Milly Thomas , Helen Simmons and KT

Join this panel of screenwriters as they discuss what it's like to work in film and TV, how they entered the business, and what it takes to get something made. This will be an interactive session where we welcome questions from the audience, and talk about all things related to being a writer who just happens to be a woman.

Helen Simmons :

Helen was named a Screen International Star of Tomorrow in 2018 and is a writer and producer. She began her career running the student film festival Watersprite while at Cambridge University, before making short films with directors such as Kate Herron and Chloe Wicks. Her work has screened at festivals around the world including Rhode Island, Flickerfest and LOCO. She has produced three features: the BIFA-nominated CHUBBY FUNNY; SAY YOUR PRAYERS, released in 2020; and the upcoming KLOKKENLUIDER starring Tom Burke and Jenna Coleman. Helen is Co-Managing Director of Erebus Pictures, the production company she runs with Stephanie Aspin and which recently received a BFI Vision Award. Erebus has film and TV projects in development with an array of exciting talent and projects are being developed alongside partners including Film4, Netflix, BBC Film, the BFI, HatTrick Mercurio, Bankside Films, Company Pictures, Endor Productions, True Vision, Rook Films and TeleFilm Canada.

As a writer, Helen's debut short F*CK, starring Emmy-nominated Brett Goldstein and Esther Smith, earned her a Best Screenwriter nomination at Underwire, was selected for both Short of the Week and Vimeo Staff Picks. She was selected as one of the iFeatures writers in 2020, working with BFI, Creative England and BBC Film, and gained a place on the prestigious 4Screenwriting's 2021 mentoring scheme. She recently wrote 4 episodes of the Audible original drama, Dark Harbour, which is released this November, and is currently co-writing and EP'ing a romantic comedy series for Kinetic Content/Red Arrow. Helen has TV projects in development with multiple producers in the UK and US, and is developing feature films with God's Own Country producer Manon Ardisson and Peter Foott's Workshop Pictures. Helen is one of the British Screen Forum’s Future Leaders and spearheaded the recent Producers Roundtable initiative alongside Loran Dunn and Sophie Reynolds.

KT:

KT is a screen and stage writer with a Neuroscience degree and a particular interest in genre, queer, and female-led stories. She is represented by Tavistock Wood and was selected for the BFI Network 2021.KT was recently hired to write Icelandic sci-fi series Eyland for ANTON, True North, and Mystery Productions, with director Otto Batthurst. She has also just completed writing Kingdom, a historical epic 6x1hr series for Cattleya and RAI, based on Emmanuel Carrère’s La Royaume. She was commissioned by Raindog and the BFI on rewrites for Lorna Tucker’s autobiographical first fiction feature, Bare, which is about to begin casting with Des Hamilton and aims to shoot in spring 2022. KT is also working with Dreamscape Media Ltd, Vikarious, Fable Films, and Causeway Pictures.Villain, Interrupted, KT's play about supervillains in prison therapy, ran at the Camden Fringe 2019 to critical acclaim and was one of 4 finalists for an Off-West End Award. Her next play Beard, was selected for the Playmill Festival 2021 at the King’s Head Theatre. With her writing partner Francesca Forristal, KT has re-written horror feature The Bunker Game (Eagle Pictures/Canal Plus) which is currently in post production having shot in Italy in Jan 2021. They have since been contracted to write a second project for producer Leo Maidenberg, with director Vladimir de Fontenay attached. KT’s debut original feature, Mermaid X, is in development with Shadowhouse Films/Douglas Cox, and was awarded early development funding by the BFI in December.