Out of the Peat - a short film

Aim

We are looking to fundraise £7000 to realise our short film - an ecological body horror shooting in February on historic Lancashire peatbog.

We are thrilled to have been awarded an intent to fund from a very prestigious film funder.

However, given the nature of the institution's funding procedure, we would not be granted this funding until the first week of February, three weeks before the shoot. In order to realise the film we have envisioned, we will need to start spending on the practical elements of production before our funding allocation.

We are looking to fundraise another £7,000 in November in order to secure the accommodation and catering for our crew; invest in essential costume and special effects; the cost of 16mm film, which is expensive but vital to our film and its process.

Additionally, fundraised contributions would cover exciting developments in the film’s creative evolution, including an opportunity to work with an internationally renowned composer, film crew and collaborators.

The Film

Flesh as film and film as flesh… An amateur archaeologist arrives on a desolate peatland in Lancashire, their mind filled with the strange power of the peat-bog waters to preserve organic matter. They have come to excavate the peatland. They have come to exhume a body. But, in digging into the past, they unearth much more than mere relics. 

The peat holds forgotten histories, uneasy truths, and vast stores of climate-change accelerating carbon. Reflecting the attempt to document and preserve this landscape via the moving image, the film becomes both a lament and call to action for local peat-bog conservation.

The film will be up to 11 minutes, and will be shot on 16mm film. We will be shooting at Chat Moss in Lancashire, a 10,000 year old lowland bog, owned by the Lancashire Wildlife Trust. 

We are shooting at the end of February in the misty bog, in order to leave the site undisturbed during peak nesting season from March to September.

Our Team

Written and directed: Tabitha Carless-Frost

Tabitha Carless-Frost is a writer and filmmaker from Suffolk, with an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway, University of London. They are interested in the ways queerness, magic, folklore and ecology intersect. 

They are currently working on their first book – an auto-fictional consideration on how language, lineage, and legibility converge in rituals of grave attendance and inherited family trauma. 

Their writing is stocked at Treadwell’s Books and has appeared in SANS Press, Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, t’ART, Horizon Magazine, and the Museum of Sex Objects.

Producer: Tate Turnbull

Tate is a short film producer from Suffolk. Her previous short film production experience includes Solidago and Sea holly both by Jerusha West, and Not Dark Yet by Hermione Sylvester. With an academic background in feminist literature and art - as well as inclusivity - she is focused on promoting the work of female and non-binary filmmaking teams. 

Alongside her work as a producer, she is working in consent education.

Co-director: Theo Rollason

Theo Rollason is an archivist and freelance film writer and editor based in London. He is particularly interested in writing about capitalism, gender, found footage, sci-fi, and the politics of blockbusters. 

His work has been featured in publications including Film Daze, Cinema As We Know It, Filmhounds Magazine, ALT/KINO, and Little White Lies. In 2022, Theo completed an MA in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths, University of London. 

Beyond his writing pursuits, Theo works as an archivist for the estate of the artist Paula Rego. His current project involves the preservation and digitisation of the artist’s film and photo archives.

Director of Photography: Morgan K. Spencer

Morgan K. Spencer is an experienced DOP for Artist Film, Fashion, Drama & Music. He has also worked on features in camera departments for over 10 years on productions such as Star Wars Episode VIII, Spectre, and Mission Impossible.

Our Thanks 

We have been pleasantly surprised by the wide interest our film has garnered from some very established filmmaking figures. We are now more confident than ever that, with the additional funding we are seeking, this film truly has the potential to be great.

As a gesture of gratitude for a donation, you would receive a credit of thanks on the silver screen in the film's credits and you would also receive your pick of signed printed stills from the film's final edit. 

We would also look to invite you to the film's premiere (whenever that will be in 2024/2025!) and any festival screenings.

Thank you in advance for your generosity. 

Contact 

For any questions, please contact Tate - [email protected] 

This project successfully funded on 27th November 2023