Images of Absence follows the story of a young academic researcher, Rena who is working on a project: homelessness and the society. Her life changes through the events she witnesses, people she meets and the stories she witnesses.

You can watch the TRAILER of the film above.

Natasha Campbell - RENA and the film crew - during the shooting of Images of Absence

"When I started the project, I was aware of the fact that homelessness had been researched and filmed many times by different filmmakers from different angles. What would be my point of view to such a sensible topic, how would I shed light on the homeless as part of the society in order to raise the awareness on this issue? I was asking myself." - Gunel Gadirova, director

 

Natasha Campbell - RENA

Images of Absence has been filmed in early spring of 2018 in the dark & bricky Shoreditch and Brick Lane streets of London by a group of talented filmmaking students and graduates. The film is the combination of fiction and vox-pops elements. Seven professional actors have been selected during the auditions for the fiction part of the film whereas vox-pops are based on interviews of random passersby of the city of London. One of the characters - Bryan is a real homeless man, who agreed to be filmed portraying himself; fortunately he has found a stable place to live just before our filming started.

Bryan's experience and past are exalted in the poster where his deep yet not beaten glance stares along with his soul right into your eyes.

Funds raised with your contribution will cover the costs of post-production which includes Color Grading and Sound Design. Color grade and Sound design are the most important elements for any kind of cinema piece after editing.

 

When Images of Absence will gain all required audio-visual perfection it will be submitted for Film Festival programs, for what part of the funds will be spent for.

What the film needs

In total, considered budget for post-production and festival submissions is £2200.

In order to make Color Grading and Sound Design happen we need around £1500.

The rest of the funds - £700 is going to give us green-light for big film festival screens - each festival has its specific entry fee.

 

 

Main Crew

WRITER-DIRECTOR - Gunel Gadirova

Gunel is a Literature graduate. She started her filmmaking career with directing short documentary and fiction pieces and got involved in copywriting  for commercial films in Baku, Azerbaijan. Gunel directed short drama film "Time" during her MA course in London Film School. She worked in several short films as a film editor and tried herself as a producer. Images of Absence is her most recent project she filmed in London with skillful film crew and cast. 

PRODUCER - Ophelie Bocca

Since graduating from London Film School in International Film Business, Ophélie has worked in the U.K in the film industry, on a few short film projects and in a number of film companies including The Bureau, Dogwoof and The Works Film Group. 

Currently, she is enrolled in a professional producing program in Paris where she keeps learning about entertainment law and film financing, while working closely with French film companies.

 

PRODUCER - Jacopo Rosso Ciufoli

Originally from Rome, he studied Management & Marketing as an undergraduate at Cass Business School, London. After three years in the UK he moved to Milan to work for the marketing and creative team for events in Condé Nast, specifically for Vogue and GQ magazines. He subsequently decided to pursue his long-held ambition of working in the film industry and started at Leone Film Group in Rome. In September, he returned to London for an MA in Film Business at London Film School.

His passion for creative writing as well as for film and theater has led him to co-author the theater piece ‘Tipi’ and translate Matthew Hurt's ‘The Man Jesus’ from English to Italian (an ongoing project that will be staged in 2019).

He has been producing fashion films for the brand Animapop; with the fashion film ‘Choose Your Side’ entering the official selections of the Seattle, Brussels and Miami Fashion Film Festivals. As a Producer based in London, he has developed a broad range of projects including five narrative short films (2018), a documentary short shot in Seoul, South Korea (2017) and a 5 episode anthology web-series.

 

CINEMATOGRAPHER - Antoine Billon

"I was very interested in working with Gunel on her graduation film, Images of Absence not only due to the taste in films we share, yet more importantly for her unique vision of the world.

My take is that the main character is Us, the society. Living in our houses, focused on our lives, neglecting and excluding homeless people leaving them to a sort of parallel world.

Though, the film shows that homeless people are the interesting ones, they have a story to tell. We don’t give them the chance to speak and when we do pay them attention, it is very much for our own vanity rather than out of generosity and benevolence. Rena, the main character realizes her helpless selfishness and that breaks her.

By choosing to follow Rena over one of her secondary characters, Gunel has shed a light on our own egocentrism; which results in making us, as an audience uncomfortable and wondering.

It also challenges the preconception of storytelling, the validity of what the “hero” should be and what the hero should go through." - Antoine Billon

Antoine studied fine art for a year and realized he wanted to express himself through moving images. He studied film in Paris while also working in the French film industry mainly in the lighting department. He then moved to London to enhance his cinematography skills at London Film School. By the end of his education he had shot 5 short films, 3 documentaries and worked on over 20 others as lighting or camera person.

 

PRODUCTION and COSTUME DESIGNER - Paul Melvin

Paul studied Film and Television at Cambridge School of Art where he art assisted on many projects. During MA Filmmaking course in London Film School his interest in production design really began. Paul production designed three short films and art directed or assisted on multiple. His interest is in social realism and bold striking design, heavily inspired by architecture and art, especially movements such as Bauhaus and Brutalism.

 

Full List of Crew Members

 

Cast

Natasha Campbell - RENA

"Playing Rena was interesting because it was all about the inner life of a character struggling with grief and feelings of inadequacy. There wasn't much dialogue to work with and even when there was, I was only reacting to it! I think the composition of the shots was done very thoughtfully and artistically to represent a world of isolated moments and disconnected people." - Natasha Campbell

 

SUPPORTING CAST

 

Way to Film Festivals

Images of Absence is a unique cinema piece which combines artistic and realistic audio-visual conceptions together. Each festival accepts films to their own program by their specific deadlines, and it happens only once a year. We undoubtedly believe Images of Absence has the potential to be accepted by major film festivals as soon as the necessary amount of funds will be gathered. The film will be color graded and sound mixed within counted days. After that Images of Absence will be ready to knock film festival doors. We don't want to be late, and aim to be projected on the big screens soon!

We need your contribution!

 

In Return...

... you will receive our deep gratitude with symbolic rewards from treasure box of Images of Absence like Backstage Photos shot by stills photographer Samantha Johnston, Special Thanks on the end credits of the finished film.

 

In case...

... you'd like to get in touch regarding the film or the campaign with Gunel or with Jacopo, please do not hesitate to drop an email to images.of.absence@gmail.com

And in case you want to get involved in the campaign, but don't want to donate via indiegogo.com, please contact us through the same email address - images.of.absence@gmail.com  and we will get back to you.

 

Thank you!