Always on
This project successfully funded on 30th November 2025, you can still support them with a donation.
Lyonesse
Penryn, Cornwall, United Kingdom
Aim
An experimental film exploring the connection between rising sea levels and the British Isles' history of spirituality.
Following the positive reception of my previous short film ‘Dowr Tamar’, I am soon to begin the creation of my next film project 'Lyonesse'. This short film will undoubtedly be my most ambitious project to date, and to help enable its creation, I am putting on this fundraiser. So, if you can spare the time, have a read through, and I hope you consider supporting this project.
The film
'Lyonesse' is an experimental 20-25 minute film that explores the British Isles’ history as a spiritual landscape and its relationship to the climate crisis we currently face; specifically, rising sea levels.
Using the myth of Lyonesse as a thematic backdrop, the film will explore whether our spiritual heritage has a part to play in shaping our current climate emergency, whilst also examining what answers spirituality, in its various forms, can provide in the face of such an existential threat. Ultimately, the aim of the film is to encourage engagement and preservation of the history and beauty of our natural and cultural landscape in the face of climate change.
-
This story will be told primarily through the lens of various landmarks and structures throughout the UK, drawing a visual and symbolic parallel between those built for worship and those constructed as protection from water.
The film is a visual journey through the British Isles’ many landscapes - moorlands, forests, mountains - capturing the evolution of sacred sights from neolithic cave art, mountain cairns, megaliths and stone rows to early monastic chapels and contemporary multi-faith sites. Simultaneously to this, the film will explore the river and coastal communities most affected by climate change today, from the Somerset Levels and Gloucestershire flood plains to the coastlines of Happisburgh and Whitby to the Thames barrier.
Archive footage sourced from various regional archives across the UK will be curated into the film’s structure. This material will not only serve to bridge the multiple timelines together but further root this story within Britain’s cultural history.
Shot using a combination of 16mm film and digital mediums, the film will be absent of language, instead relying wholly on the relationship between images and sound, creating a film that is as purely cinematic and accessible as possible.
Finally, to bring this all together, the film will feature a new score by previous collaborator Amy Lawrence aka The Worm, whose unique approach to music making will guide the audience beyond the limitations of the film’s images.
The myth
Lyonesse is the name given to England's very own flood myth. It is the story of a once great kingdom that was flooded by God as a consequence for its hubris. Similar myths can be found across many cultures, believed to have collectively originated from a time when sea levels were much lower.
Today, sea levels are continuing to rise at an increasing rate, though instead of a dramatic single wave, it is a gradual yet progressive flood. Globally, it will have widespread effects, resulting in mass migration and famine. Here in the UK, many of the villages, towns, and cities that occupy our coastlines and riversides will be destroyed, and our landscape forever altered. Unless immediate and global action towards combating the climate emergency is implemented, then this collective fate will be unavoidable.
If science measures change and stories personify it, that makes myths like Lyonesse as relevant today as they were at the time of their creation, especially when such a myth becomes prophecy.
The people making it.
Myself - Samuel Bestwick
My name is Samuel Bestwick, and I am a film artist based in Cornwall. Inspired by landscapes and their mythologies, my practice adopts narratives as a means by which to re-contextualise place and social history.
I have exhibited my work across multiple venues throughout the South West. My most recent film, ‘Dowr Tamar’, explored the history of the Tamar River through the lens of the bridges that cross it. Originally exhibited at Grays Wharf, the film was shown at various film festivals and went on to win the South West Film Award at BAFTA-qualifying Encounters Film Festival.
‘Lyonesse’ can in many ways be viewed as a formal continuation of ‘Dowr Tamar’, with my intention being to create a work that is much wider in scope, formally ambitious, and culturally relevant; with the finished film connecting with audiences on a broader scale than ever before.
Composer - The Worm.
The Worm is an avant folk project, rooted in the stories of a fictional, time-travelling character, created and acted out by Amy Lawrence (they / them), a performance artist from Cornwall. With music played on cello, harp, recorders, and percussion, Lawrence crafts a strange, enchanting soundworld as The Worm, shaping an inimitable form of abstract roots music enriched by inventive storytelling.
Sound recordist and camera assistant - Olivia Brelsford Massey
Olivia is an artist based in Cornwall. She will provide camera and sound support during some of the film’s more complex shoots.
The budget
The total budget for this film is £6300
£1000 has already been kindly received, and £2000.00 will be paid for by me.
Through this fundraiser, I am hoping to raise the last £3300.00 necessary to make this film
All money kindly received from the fundraiser will pay for 16mm film stock, composer fees, travel expenses to shoot locations, permits, the rights to archive footage, and festival submission fees.
Timeline
Because of the film’s scope, the film requires multiple film shoots, the first of which is planned for this September and during the spring of 2026.
The film will be edited immediately following the film's final shoot and will be completed during the summer.
The film will be exhibited in Cornwall in 2026, before going on to be submitted to international and national film festivals!
A passion project.
The ideas for this film have been stewing in my mind for a couple of years, brought on by an unexpected form of spiritual connection; The land I was born onto, not the political systems I occupy, but the landscape itself, the forests, beaches, rivers, moorland, and hills. We owe both our history and our future to this landscape, and so it is our collective responsibility to protect it. For this reason, I feel compelled to make this film, as I believe it is something that needs to be shared.
Asking people for money is not something I envisioned doing, especially with the world in the state it is, but alas, here we are! The types of films I make are difficult to secure funding for, and if I keep waiting so that I might receive some, then this film might take another 5 years to make.
If I could afford to pay for the entire film’s creation, I would gladly do so, but unfortunately, I am unable to. It is my hope that through the combined generosity of the many, this film’s budget can be reached!
Anything you can offer I'd be humbled to receive, but if you cannot afford to do so, then that is also fine. I am just grateful that you took the time to read this far. And I hope you join me on the future of this project, in one form or another, and that when the film is made, I am able to share it with you.
As a thankyou
Anyone who donates any money at all, please know that I will be very grateful, however small the amount.
You will be notified when and where the film will be screened, as well as being sent a link to watch it after the film has completed its festival circuit. Everyone who donates will also be thanked in the film’s credits.
Anyone who donates over £50.00 will be sent a small hand processed 35mm print, developed from a photograph taken one of the film's shoots.
Anyone who donates over £120.00 will receive a hand printed, limited edition colour silk screen print.
Both of these prints will be sent out once the film is complete.
Once again, thank you for reading, and I hope you consider supporting this project.
Sam
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made