Roxanne
Tomorrow is the last shoot day on Roxanne, a short film written and directed by Paul Frankl. It's been great reconnecting with Paul to help him and his producer Akua Obeng-Frimpong make this film.
When we were filming Water Song last year - or was it the year before that?! - Paul had two scripts he had written and that he really wanted to direct. One was Roxanne. I think something that seems to connect most of Paul's work is his interest in unusual characters. Characters whose stories aren't usually the main focus in films - the outsiders, the non-conformists! In Water Song, he set the story in a swimming pool and his heroine was a deaf-dumb girl, so the film was all in sign language. He has great instincts. The winner at this year's Semaine de La Critique was Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy with the amazing film THE TRIBE which swept the board winning the Nespresso Grand Prize and all the other available awards too! The Tribe was set in a boarding school for the deaf-and-dumb and filmed entirely in sign language.
But anyway, I digress! Here, our main protagonist is Roxanne, a transgender sex-worker, the setting is the gorgeously seedy Soho and the little creature who is about to turn Roxanne's world around is little 11 year old Lily.
I've been so impressed with Paul's resourcefulness and energy. Not only a successful Kickstarter campaign, but he approached a brand for support and they came on board with the rest of the funds too. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to mention the brand just now, but they have been incredibly cool and supportive. This also means Paul and Akua will have support right through the festival period and beyond too, making sure the film gets out to as wide an audience as possible. He and Akua have gathered together an amazing crew and a fabulous cast. You can see how great Miss Cairo is as Roxanne by watching the teaser on the Kickstarter campaign. Thea Lamb plays Lily and, you wouldn't know it to watch her, but this is her first ever performance. Paul has directed them with great warmth and confidence.
Paul really wanted to shoot the film on 35mm and his long term collaborator and talented DOP Rina Yang was also very excited at the cinematic dimension this would bring to the project.
Between them, the team were able to pull a big ole Panaflex Platinum camera and enough film stock for a 5 day shoot - together with a lot of support from Panavision and i-dailies.
It's gonna look great!
Find out more
We're in production and development so things are always changing. Ohna will be keeping the news page and Twitter feed up to date. But if you want to know more please do get in touch!
