Sharp Shorts Year 2
Year: 2023
Synopsis: In a near-future Scotland, the air is so polluted you have to pay to breathe. Disillusioned activist Eliza prepares for a final act of protest against the oxygen company who destroyed her life.
FILM CREW:
Director: Lucas Chih Peng Kao 高智鵬
Producer: Mark Lacey, Lindsay McGee
Screenwriter: Zoe Bullock
DOP: Kirstin McMahon
Editor: Cailtin Delves
Sound Design: Heather Andrews
Composer: Kim Moore/ Susan Bear
Production Design: Aaron Close
Costume Design: Mona Kastell
Hair & Makeup: Sammy Jack
Casting: Anna Dawson
Cast: Natali McClery, Hannah Donaldson, Brian Ferguson, Ryaan Ali
Photo credit: Robin Mair
Lucas Chih-Peng Kao is a film director and multidisciplinary artist working across installations, performance, early photography process and video. He was born in Taiwan then settled in Edinburgh, Scotland. As a director and filmmaker, he had made poetry films, dance films, physical theatre films, documentaries, music videos, hybrid streaming theatre and 360 videos, finding common grounds and exploring borders between different disciplines.His short films have won awards and screened in local and international festivals, V Day had competed in Glasgow Short Film Festival, Movement in Progress won 2nd prize in 2016 Macroview TV Contest and competed in 2017 Perth Screendance Festival. He is currently finishing his first short fiction film commission by Short Circuit, The Air We Breathe, as director.
Zoe is a writer from Sheffield based in Glasgow. Her credits for theatre include The Listening Tree (Edinburgh International Children’s Festival/Eco Drama), Puss in Boots: A Solar Punk Pantomime (Hopscotch Theatre), and Chamber 404 (Vroom Theatre). She has also collaborated on two series of micro stop-motion animation films with designer Christine Urquhart: Granny Fenella for Imaginate, and Little Spoon’s Big Adventures for Visible Fictions. She is a recipient of the New Playwright’s Award from Playwright’s Studio Scotland, and she is currently studying for an MA in TV Writing at Glasgow Caledonian University. Zoe’s play Sho & the Demons of the Deep (Independent Arts Projects) is currently supported through the National Theatre of Scotland Develop Fund, and will tour Scotland in 2024.
Lindsay is a BAFTA Scotland New Talent Award winning drama producer based in Edinburgh. She has previously produced BFI Network short Slingshot (2018), and multi award-winning short Hula (2016) whichwon the Scottish Audience Award at Glasgow Short Film Festival, had a sell-out run across the Highlands in the Screen Machine and screened on BBC iPlayer.
She recently joined forces with Glasgow-based producer Alysia Maciejowska and set up production company GirlBitesDog to develop projects with a focus on female and diverse Scottish talent. Together they were selected for several competitive film markets, including Rotterdam’s Cinemart; London’s Production Finance Market, where they were named ‘Ones to Watch’; JETS coproduction forum where they were UK prize winners and the Independent Filmmaker Project in New York. Lindsay has an MA Screenwriting and in between producing, freelances in the art department on feature films, commercials and TV. Film credits include The Outrun, Batgirl, The Princess Switch and Outlaw King.
Mark has a wealth of experience in multiple production roles specialising in animation and documentary as well as drama. He has worked on numerous award-winning commercials, independent features and large-scale productions. These include Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs and Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie. His first drama feature as a producer, Silent Night, was released in 2020, and is available in North America on Hulu and in the UK on Sky on Demand. He has also produced award winning shorts Burn on Arrival and Screen Scotland supported The Air We Breathe. Documentary credits include producer on Still The Enemy Within and Hong Kong: City on Fire, line producer One Man On His Shoes (selected for SXSW, brought by BBC Three/ Vice) and studio producer on hit BBC Scotland show A View From The Terrace. He is an Edinburgh Talent Lab and BIFA Springboard alumni.
