Red Hawthorn 2019 9:30mins

Hawthorn, a quiet teenage boy with all the correlating tender attributes, lives in a village on the West Coast of Scotland. The mournful landscapes and whistling wind are interrupted by the blasting dystopic industrial rhythms from Glasgow's The Modern Institute. The score mirrors Hawthorn's defeated ego in his desperate love for a returning friend, Magnolia. Sorrowful and deeply felt, Hawthorn's lovesickness is Romanticist in colour. The wilderness is uncaring. The water laps softly against the muddy sand, oblivious. Fat seals continue to lounge on rocks out at sea.

The film is a portrait of a young boy in a particular state of lovesickness which comes close to a feeling of joy. It is a sadness which is almost ecstatic as it shows a connection with the world of feeling. It is the sting of heartache. His environment is sparse and rural but I wanted it to feel like a kind environment which could hold these feelings as well as being a lonely place for a young boy. The characters name, Hawthorn, comes from the known medicinal qualities of the Hawthorn plant which can be used to treat the raw sadness of a broken heart.

Casting movement and dance based artist, Romany Dear, as a teenage boy was inspired by her recent dance performance Two fisted, many sided, tuna fem, which touches upon themes of 'masculinity' and 'femininity,' via and vis-a-vis the body. Katie Shannon who plays Magnolia is an artist and musician based in Glasgow. The music is by Glasgow's The Modern Institute. I used this score as a way to lift Hawthorn from the rural into the industrial at the end of the film. He transitions from his quiet existence to a life full of the risk that comes when you care for someone deeply.