Living With It - cast announcement

So happy to announce the two extraordinary cast members attached to our animated film Living With It. Annabelle Davis and Lawrence Chaney.

Living With It

Perfectionist Lee (Annabelle Davis) must adapt to the imperfect reality of living with a disease - brought to life as a chaotic supernatural flatmate - Bug (Lawrence Chaney).

Accepting the long-term effects of disease - and making the best of an imperfect situation - are explored through the relationship between two dysfunctional flatmates in this 2D animated mockumentary.

Annabelle Davis as LEE

Fresh from starring in the upcoming Willow (2022) - Annabelle Davis brings her voice work to the character of Lee - who is trying to adjust to life with her new 'flatmate'.

Annabelle Davis is known for Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015) and The Dumping Ground (2013).

Lawrence Chaney as BUG

Following his win in Drag Race UK Season 2 and his BAFTA Scotland award. Lawrence lends their talented and unmistakable voice to the role of Bug - our supernatural animated flatmate.

Lawrence recently completed filming their own TV Show 'Tartan Around with Lawrence Chaney'.

The team

Holly Summerson will direct and take the lead in animating. Niki Rooney is writing and Reece Cargan is producing.

Director, writer and animator Holly Summerson:

I’m so excited to create this fun, fantastical, emotional film with an amazing team and the incredible support of Sharp Shorts!

Themes of Living With It

Living With It’ explores the universal theme of making the best of imperfection, as well as an under-represented perspective on disease, focused on enjoying a life that’s slightly different from conventional expectations.

The comedic flatmate relationship and striking visuals discuss illness, grief and shifting identity in a creative, captivating and understandable way.

Writer - Niki Rooney:

It's so thrilling and moving to be working with an editorial team who all identify with disability/chronic illness for the first time in my entire career. This representation on and off screen is so important to me, and I've never been prouder to have my name attached to a project.

I'm looking forward to sharing with the world our funny, authentic portrayal of the lived experience of 'Living With It' through Lee and Bug.

Producer - Reece Cargan:

I am excited to work with Holly again after our time working on Bombito's Who I Am Now (currently about to receive its World Premiere) as I know we work well together and will craft something unique and beautiful.

I'm also ecstatic to get to work with an established talent such as Niki who has a knack of being able to write scripts that can make you laugh out loud one second and then slap you in the feels with an emotional sucker punch the next!

The scheme

Short Circuit is a film talent initiative for Scotland delivered by Film City Futures in partnership with Glasgow Film, and funded by The National Lottery through Screen Scotland and BFI NETWORK. The programme aims to support new and emerging filmmaking talent across Scotland through a combination of funding, events and training opportunities.

Each team will each receive up to £15,000 to produce their film.

More information

Read the short circuit press release.

Read the Screen Scotland press release.

Prosopagnosia wins at Academy Award qualifying festival and wins a Marvel of Media award

We are pleased to announce that Prosopagnosia by Steven Fraser won best film in its category at the 15th edition of the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival (SDFF) and has also won a Marvel of Media Award from the Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI).

Academy Award qualification at Sebastopol

This festival is an annual celebration of non-fiction filmmakers from around the world.

Winners of SDFF's Jury Award and Audience Award are academy award qualifying in the short film category.

The short film jury selected Prosopagnosia as best film and the jurors said:

“A personal, vulnerable, and vibrant exploration of a fascinating yet little known topic – face blindness. The jury was impressed by the visually rich design and stop motion animation, poignant narration, and profound questions raised.”

This is great news for the film and for what happens next. Bring on the OSCAR race 2023!

Marvels of Media Award

The Museum of the Moving Image recently unveiled the winners of its inaugural Marvels of Media Awards, which are:

“the country’s very first media awards ceremony, film festival and exhibition celebrating media-makers on the autism spectrum,”

The awards were developed by the museum’s education department and leadership in partnership with Josh Sapan, a longtime member of New York-based MoMI’s Board of Trustees and the executive vice chairman of AMC Networks.

The award for Prosopagnosia

3071 submissions were entered from 117 countries and Prosopagnosia was selected as the winner of the Experimental Film Award.

Director Steven Fraser will attend the ceremony in New York. There is also a screening and exhibition running alongside this with artefacts from the film. More information is available in the Hollywood Reporter article.

The screening and exhibition at MOMI

The screening is via the ReelAbilities Film Festival and takes place on Saturday, Apr 9 at 13:00 in the Bartos Screening Room.

Catch the exhibition from Thursday, Mar 31 - Sunday, May 1 at Amphitheater Gallery.

Future Festival screenings for Prosopagnosia

After all this success, the film is still going strong and we are continuing the festival journey of the film with the following upcoming screenings:

Reel Abilities: New York

We are elated that Reel Abilities supported the film as they are the largest festival in the USA dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories and artistic expression of people with disabilities. They were also instrumental in the submission regarding the Marvel of Media Award.

These screenings are supported by AMC Network and you can watch the film at Reel Abilities where it is showing both virtually and live across two venues.

1. The Museum of the Moving Image - Saturday April 9th 13:00

2. Marlene Meyerson ICC Manhattan - Sunday April 10th, 12:00pm

Steven will be in attendance at the Museum of the Moving Image screening when he receives his Marvel of Media Award.

European Independent Film Festival: Paris, France

On Saturday 9th April - Prosopagnosia heads to Paris for the17th edition of ÉCU – The European Independent Film Festival. The festival’s mantra is to discover, project and promote the best independent filmmaking talent from around the world.

Steven was interviewed by The New Current about his selection at the festival.

Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF): Seattle

Prosopagnosia heads back to North America where it will screen at the 48th Seattle International Film Festival, April 14–24, 2022. Everyman by Bombito will also be screening at the same festival!

Both films will screen as official selections of SIFF's ShortsFest Weekend, April 15–17.

• Prosopagnosia at SIFF

• Everyman at SIFF

Annecy International Animation Festival: Annecy, France

Showing in competition at Annecy - the premiere Animation Film Festival and Market in France from 13-28 June.

The film

Prosopagnosia uses expressive animation to investigate intimacy, communication and memory.

Prosopagnosia means face-blindness and to understand this neurodiverse behaviour, the contents of a memory box are intricately explored.

Sketchbooks, photographs and diaries unravel to tell a unique and personal story.

Further information

• Developed and supported by the Scottish Documentary Institute's Bridging the Gap programme and Screen Scotland

• Written, animated and edited by Steven Fraser

• Produced by Reece Cargan

• Composed, sound designed and mixed by Tom Drew

• Colourist: Jack Lang

What's next

As we make plans for a potential Academy Award longlist in the future - there are still more festival selections, award announcements and a very exciting way to watch the film online -coming very soon.

Prosopagnosia to screen at 6 festivals in March

Steven Fraser's personal film Prosopagnosia continues its global screening journey and is screening at multiple festivals in competition during March 2022.

Screenings

Fresh from screening in competition at both IDFA and Clermont Ferrand, Prosopagnosia will soon be screening at the following festivals:

Festival	Location	Dates	Screening	Ticket Link
BFI Flare	London, UK	22 & 24 March	Official Selection	Get Tickets
Ann Arbor	Michigan	24 March	In Competition	Get Tickets
Salem Film Festival	Salem, Massachusetts	25 March	Official Selection	Get Tickets
Sebastapol Documentary Festival	Sebastapol, California	26 March	In Competition	Get Tickets
Glasgow Short Film Festival	Glasgow, Scotland	27 March	In Competition	Get Tickets
Kaboom Animation Festival	Utrecht, Netherlands	28 March	In Competition	Get Tickets

The film

Prosopagnosia uses expressive animation to investigate intimacy, communication and memory. Prosopagnosia means face-blindness and to understand this neurodiverse behaviour, the contents of a memory box are intricately explored.

Sketchbooks, photographs and diaries unravel to tell a unique and personal story.

Steven Fraser:

Steven is delighted by the continued success, screenings and the fact that the film is connecting with festivals across the globe. Steven will attend as many of the screenings as he can and will appear online or at Q&As of those he can't.

View the trailer

Further information

• Developed and supported by the Scottish Documentary Institute's highly acclaimed Bridging the Gap programme and Screen Scotland.

• Written, animated and edited by Steven Fraser

• Produced by Reece Cargan

• Composed, sound designed and mixed by Tom Drew

• Colourist: Jack Lang

Screening or distribution requests

Please contact Alexandra via festivals@scotdoc.com