A short documentary featuring Manx artists aimed at demystifying the artistic process has been selected for four prestigious festivals.
Inspiration is the latest film by Patrick Crellin and Bethany White of Dark Avenue Film.
It follows three Manx artists, Juan Moore, Bruno Cavellec and Alice Dudley, as they complete a piece of work, discussing their sources of inspiration and identity as artists.
Inspiration has been selected in its first four festivals –London Lift Off Festival, Winter Film Awards, The Santa Fe Film Festival and Short. Sweet. Film Fest in Cleveland, Ohio.
Patrick told Island Life: ‘It’s amazing that the film has been recognised at such a level.
‘The fact that its world premiere is in New York at the Winter Film Awards is a fantastic achievement, and we’re over the moon as to how its been received so far. We’ve very early into our festival run, so stay tuned to our social media channels to find out which others we get in to.’
He said they were inspired to make the film through conversations they had with Bruno when he designed posters for their previous short films.
‘We found his story of how he came to art to be very powerful and inspiring, and different to our own, so we decided to create a documentary that explored artistic inspiration through three Manx artists, all of whom contrasted with one another.’
Patrick added: ‘We also decided on the form and style of the film after watching David Lynch: The Art Life, a feature documentary all about film director David Lynch’s own relationship with visual art and how he expresses himself through it.’
They described their crew as ‘amazing’. Harry Henthorn, as director of photography, brought innovative ideas about how to film the creative process, including the use of a probe lens so they could get much closer to the art. Jordan Perry was first assistant director and Phoebe Knowles was editor.
Mera Royle created the soundtrack, bringing the personalities of each subject to life. Olivia Savage designed the artwork used as the opening titles.
They thanked the Isle of Man Arts Council and Culture Vannin for their support.
Dark Avenue Film has been in operation since 2018. They recently moved from the island to London to expand.
To date, they have produced three short fiction films and three short documentaries and their films have been selected in 40 film festivals worldwide and won 15 awards.
Their plans for 2023 are to produce more short films, and Bethany has been selected as part of the Amazon Prime Video Craft Academy, run by the National Film and Television School.