Ten Questions with Sophie Ansell

Artist, filmmaker and 2018 John Brabourne Award winner Sophie Ansell sits down with us to talk all things filmmaking and offers advice to JBA hopefuls.

Sophie’s first narrative short, Funemployed (2016), screened at festivals including London Short Film Festival and Encounters, was nominated for Best Production Design at Underwire Festival and was awarded Film of the Month by director Anna Biller on the Shooting People website.

Her work utilises stylised aesthetics and dark humour as tools to playfully disjoint dominant narratives.

Q: What projects are you currently working on?

A: I’m currently in post-production on my short film, The Girl in the Shed or No Body to Go With. It’s a darkly comedic fairytale about a girl who shares a run-down shed with a skeleton who lives in the cupboard. The film is an exploration of FOMO (fear of missing out), which I’m interested in because I think it’s a very modern form of anxiety. The whole thing hinges on terrible puns!

I’m also working on the production design for Overnight Film Festival 2019. It’s a dreamy little communal cinema experience in a grand old hotel in Eastbourne which is coming up in February.

Q: Where do you see yourself in ten years?

A: I’d love to be in a position where I have the freedom to work on the projects I want to work on, alongside the people I want to work with.

Q: Looking back on when you started, what advice would you give yourself?

A: I would steal American film director John Waters’ advice: “Have faith in your own bad taste.”

Q: Which filmmakers inspire you?

A: Too many! But mostly directors with a strong visual style and sense of humour, such as John Waters, Anna Biller, Vera Chytilová, Jan Švankmajer, Wes Anderson, Gregg Araki, Alice Lowe, Sofia Coppola and Jean Rollin to name a few! I also recently watched Pincushion and now I’m a bit obsessed with Deborah Haywood.

Q: What was the moment you realised you wanted to be a filmmaker?

A: I’ve always loved watching films and going to the cinema, but I never considered that I could actually make them until I watched Daisies by Vera Chytilová.

This was kind of a “eureka” moment for me. I had never seen a film that was so unashamedly feminine at the same time as being hysterically funny, eye-rollingly angry and beautifully designed. I was on the edge of my seat, grabbing hold of my friend’s arm, bobbing up and down and whispering ‘YAAASSSSSSS’ the whole way through.

That’s the kind of film I want to make. That is the kind of visceral reaction I want to get out of my audience.

Q: What is your favourite ever film and why?

A: Daisies by Vera Chytilová for the same reasons as above.

Q: What TV box set binge would you recommend?

A: The original Sabrina the Teenage Witch, First Dates, RuPaul’s Drag Race and Nighty Night.

Q: What was your reaction when you won a JBA (John Brabourne Award), and how has it changed your work life?

A: I was so relieved, shocked and grateful! It’s basically made it possible for me to go to film school and dedicate a whole year to focusing on doing what I love and developing my work.

Q: John Brabourne Award nominations are now open for 2019. What advice do you have for someone applying?

A: Put as much of yourself as you can into the application and don’t worry — everyone who interviews you is lovely!

Link to website: www.sophieansell.com.

Follow here : https://www.instagram.com/sophie.ansell/

Apply here for John Brabourne Award 2019 : http://bit.ly/JBA_Application