New Voices 2023: Meet the Participants
BFI NETWORK South West, in partnership with Blak Wave Productions, Little By Little Films and Grey Moth, are pleased to present our participants for New Voices 2023. New Voices is a three-month talent development scheme for underrepresented writer-directors in the south west of England.
Charlie Parchment (he/they)
Charlie Parchment has work based in various film mediums to help engage viewers through a specialist use and manipulation of sound design. Their practise is largely focused on stories of working-class and marginalised voices, and it aims to offer a fantastical perspective on current everyday experiences. Their most recent projects include a poetic reflection of queerness in rural spaces and a father attempting to keep afloat a broken home.
Frazer Meakin (he/him)
Frazer is a Nottingham-born director working across theatre and film who ventured to the south west 8 years ago to study Drama and Acting at UWE. Upon graduating he went on to develop his director’s craft at the prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theatre School on the MA Drama Directing programme, gaining experience working across theatre, film and radio. Frazer has directed across a range of styles and forms including musicals, Shakespeare, drag performance and work for young people. Over the last year, he has worked in the West End and taken productions on tour throughout the UK. He has also worked as a Casting Director and 2nd AD for The Fence feature film and as a runner in HETV. Having worked with screenwriters to develop short films, he’s now looking forward to finding his own writer’s voice, bringing his unique experience and theatrical style to the screen.
X (Twitter)
Gemma Reynolds (she/her)
Gemma is a passionate actor and emerging writer-director who aims to work in an understated, naturalistic way with other artists. She specialises in intimate, small-scale character and relationship-based stories that bring joy, emotional release and some level of understanding of what it is to be human, with a particular interest in stories centring all kinds of women over 40. She recently produced and directed her first micro-short, and is currently working on a drama about a perfectly healthy septuagenarian planning to head to Dignitas in her 80th year, which she wrote and will act in.
Letterboxd / Instagram / X (Twitter)
Grace Morgan (she/her)
Grace is a disabled writer-director with a passion for telling authentic stories, and is keen to represent disabled talent both in front of and behind the camera. In 2021 she joined the BFI Film Academy, where she made connections with Somerset Film who supported her first short On My Level, which screened at the BFI Inside Film event, and London Independent Film Festival. Grace then attended university whilst working on post-production and writing other films on the side, yet had to leave her studies due to lack of inclusion. Grace is now working part-time in retail whilst writing. Her next directing role will be on football-themed short She Will Play On, and she has even taken up the sport in preparation!
Jem Dryer (they/them)
Jem Dryer is the product of the first successful experiment to splice celluloid into human DNA. Their greatest love since birth has been filmmaking. That passion drove them to a place as a screenwriter at the National Youth Film Academy, running the film society at the University of Exeter, and making a slew of student films. Having recently worked in film/TV development, they have been honing their writing and filmmaking skills, inching their way towards fulfilling their dream of being a filmmaker.
Jojo Bossman (they/them)
Jojo Bossman is a queer Black British Ghanaian writer-director based in Bristol who makes dramas that aren’t as dramatic as they are heartfelt. They’re passionate about telling the stories of the unheard and telling them from the heart, for the heart, and draw from their experiences to create films that feel like home. Jojo works in the film and TV industry as a camera assistant and at local film processing spot. Their most recent short, Big Pants, is a tale about community and gender identity wrapped in self-expression through clothing, and is currently in post-production. When they’re not thinking about film (which is rarely), they enjoy being at concerts, baking a mean pretzel bite and sinking into the grass on a sunny day, and yes, their last name really is ‘Bossman’.
Penn Bálint (they/he)
Penn Bálint is a Hungarian multimedia artist based in Devon, and the founder of The Yoko Situation: an art collective centring gender diverse and disabled stories. He has a background writing and directing theatre and completed an R&D residency at Exeter Phoenix with his play Teddy Midnight. Their first film, Moments I Saw In Red (2023), screened at Queer Vision and Darkroom film festivals, as well as Queer Film Festival Munich and Grrl Haus cinema in Berlin. Penn is currently writing and directing another short, Soviet Fantasia, commissioned by Exeter Phoenix, which will shoot in Budapest this September, and blends queer culture, dance, folklore and synth-pop.
Shannon George (she/her)
Shannon is a Jamaican writer-director and the visionary behind Brownstone Studios, a thriving film and theatre production company based in Bristol, UK. Since founding the company in 2021 Shannon has been dedicated to using her position within the film industry to foster emerging talent and provide opportunities for underrepresented voices. Her passion for exploring and celebrating the British Black experience is evident in her unique and nuanced approach to writing and directing. Her impressive track record includes sold-out theatre shows, film premieres, prestigious film festivals and projects that push the boundaries of storytelling.
Meet New Voice's cohort of 2023
New Voices 2020: Meet the Participants
BFI NETWORK South West are pleased to present our participants for the New Voices scheme 2020.
New Voices 2021: Meet the Participants
BFI NETWORK, in partnership with production companies Blak Wave & Little By Little Films, are pleased to present our participants for the New Voices scheme 2021-22. This talent development opportunity aims to help aspiring South West and Midlands based filmmakers looking to develop their five-minute short film idea.
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Film Hub South West &
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are part of the BFI Film Audience Network, supported by The National Lottery.
