One of the biggest challenges everyone faces growing up is dealing with other people’s ideas of what they think you should be and how you should act. It’s frustrating when that narrative doesn’t fit your personality and sometimes it can cause you to undermine and forget yourself. You may try to conform to these ideas but in the end, you are not happy or satisfied in life.
The one question we seem to take a long time to learn is, what if you ignored those ideas and were just yourself? Sure, it sounds like something logically and easy, but we can spend months, years and possibly a decade learning that, at the end of the day, if we are not happy with ourselves then life can be more stressful then necessary. This would of course mean disregarding all the other stresses life brings us.
Lady is about a young woman living in London. She wants to be herself but there are these cultural ideas of how she should act simply because she is female. She wants to be herself. She is a fan of the ‘ladette culture’ from the 90s where women were able to be freer. She is still carrying on that culture for herself and is of course dating. But she’s not just dating men, no Lady will date both men and woman and will play the field in search of someone worth staying with. She doesn’t believe in just limiting herself to just one sex.
Shot in Kodak Super 8mm provided by Frame 24, this short film gives you a glimpse into an even bigger discussion then what Lady is telling us. It brings up the point of how we seem to lose track of being ourselves. We will sometimes conform to the ideas of society. Lady is the idea of just being yourself. Of remembering when it didn’t matter if you fit a mold or if you were what a woman should be and act like. One of the things I hate is when someone tells me how I should act or dress to be more “lady-like”. Some would argue that men are not held to this standard, after all society has taught us that men and women are different. Women are not meant to be tough or “tom-boyish”. They should almost be like dolls. This is ridiculous. We should be allowed to me ourselves.
Being yourself means you should be able to eat what you want. It means you should be able to eat something messy without someone gawking at you. It means we should be able to say how we feel without judgement, regardless if you’re male or female. It means we should be able to swear like a sailor without it being considered “un-lady like behavior”. It means we can hang with the boys and keep up with them. It means being ourselves and ignoring someone else’s opinion who is different from ours.
This what humanity is about. We are all different. We have different faces, hair, eye color, lips, body types and genders. We are who we want to make ourselves and if you are not happy with yourself, then maybe take a hard look as to why. And for those who would try to change you and conform you to their ideas, follow in these words:
“Oh, fuck off.” – Lady
The cast and crew are:
Cast
Lady – Amy Doyle – Ghost Stories (2018), The Crown (2016)
Derek – Matthew Castle – Holby City (2015)
Crew
Director of Photography – Adam Singodia – Level Up (2016) Blue (2017) & Radio (2018)
Sound Recordist and Sound Design – Michael Chubb – Milk and Honey (2018), The Shadow of Bigfoot (2013)
Costume Designer – Lois Tagg
Make-Up Artist – Shauna Taggart – Level Up (2016), Brotherhood (2016)
Stills Photography – Sam Rockman
Editor – Lindsey Woodward – Taboo (2017), Big Little Lies Series 2 (2018)
Composer – Hollie Buhagiar – The Circle (2017), Comeback Kid (2017)
Casting – Hammond Cox Casting
Directed, Written and Produced by Will Nash Somatic (2016), Ice Cream (2015)
Produced by Daniel Hammersley Radio (2018), Mugs (2017)
Produced by Hold Your Fire
Shot on Kodak Super 8mm provided by Frame 24
Development and Scanning – Cinelab and On8Mil
Kit Hire – Focus 24
You can read my review here of Somatic.
Tanya Giaimo 