Lou Birks
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Over the past few years, I have heard many people commenting on the authentic voice and haunting poetic quality of Lou Birks' Black Dog - a short film which explores the experience of manic depression. DAO was eager to find out more about Lou's work as an independent filmmaker.
How did you get into filmmaking?
I originally started in community and political theatre about 20 years ago. My first play Food for Thought, about a young woman with anorexia, was snapped up by the National Student Theatre Company and produced in Edinburgh.
Through being a survivor, I got involved in the disability arts movement when it was quite young in the 80s, and led primarily by people with physical and sensory impairments. I have been in and out of the psychiatric system since my early 20s, and I was out as a survivor, but didn't relate that so much to disability at the time. Unfortunately I have been largely silent and isolated both within the survivor and the disability movements.
As that silent, isolated survivor, I went to the BBC to work as a facilitator on the One in Four disability magazine programme. I have no qualms in saying that there would have been little chance of me getting in any other way - I hadn't done well at school (maybe due to prolonged childhood illness), had no A Levels, wasn't Oxbridge, and had no confidence. But once at the BBC, I was able to observe and learn about programme making and basically got a BBC training through observation, which was fantastic! To give credit to the BBC, they did later part sponsor me to complete the Goldsmith's M.A. in Documentary Television.
My school's Careers Adviser laughed when I said I wanted to work in theatre and the arts. He advised me instead to apply for a job on the production line in the local clothing factory, which I didn't do. I realise now, that what drew me towards theatre, drama and acting was the fact that it's all about being someone else. In my worst moments of mental ill health now, I experience other people inhabiting me and taking me over, etc.
on being an independent filmmaker
After leaving TV production, I slowly made my way towards being an independent filmmaker, continuing to move in and out of the psychiatric system being an in-patient, out-patient and often just hiding myself away for long periods unable to cope with going out the front door. I've also done lots of other jobs. Somewhere along the line I qualified and worked teaching video production, have worked as a solicitors' clerk, run an arts centre and a myriad of cash-in-hand jobs.
Over the past 6 or 7 years I developed a production company Pie Films and so far we've had a dozen or so commissions. I'm very interested in the ethics of production, particularly coming from a mental health perspective. Through my experience in the industry over the years, I've seen a very unhealthy environment, and a survival of the quickest, the fittest, the fastest, the loudest. With the advent of technology having become more accessible (for people with the dexterity that is - as often it's quite small) the broadcast industry has cashed in on cheap programming, resulting in numerous reality TV shows, where programme makers don't have to pay actors or contributors, and everything is done as quickly as possible with the smallest possible crew. I don't thrive well in an environment like that. In fact, I don't think many people do. So with Pie Films there is a focus on making the production environment as stress-free as possible for crews as well as participants. A lot of ethics is about mutual respect. Filmmaking for me is about doing what's in your heart, and my heart is in social change: raising awareness in an attempt to change the way people think.
A circular pie is split into four regular quarters. The top left quarter is a yellow monochrome photo of the lens of a video camera. The top right quarter is a green production slate with the words 'Production Number' and 'Scene'. The bottom left quarter is a blue monochrome photo of editing equipment. The bottom right quarter is a purple monochrome photo of a production slate. This sits on top of the words 'Pie Films'; below this is the tagline 'ethical production for the 21st century'.
last updated: 2006-05-01 00:00:00
More by this author : Graeae Theatre: Scene Change Face On Minding the Gap Karen Sheader: Planet of the Blind Alison Jones: The Smell of Honey An interview with Philip Patston The Power of Touch Next Year in Auckland Liberty Festival 2005 Mind the Gap LDAF Disability Film Festival Beyond Compliance Artsadmin Digital Bursaries 2004 Karen Sheader: Planet of the Blind Interview with Danny Start Ways of Seeing Art Disability Culture Abnormal we stand A Series of Lines
tags : survivor arts film