Olive: A Short Film

*** We're currently fundraising for Post Production - here's a taster of the film...!

Olive is a short film exploring elderly female desire and sexuality.

80-year-old Olive finds her solitary lifestyle interrupted when Jo, who’s in his 30s, rents the cottage next door for the summer to escape his London life. As the heat intensifies, a surprising intimacy starts to develop between them - until a sudden accident leaves Olive depressed and wanting to shut out the summer and Jo. But Jo has other ideas making us wonder – will Olive miss her last chance after all?

*** PROJECT UPDATE**** Thanks to the support of everyone who donated, we were able to raise the money we needed to shoot Olive in September 2022!!

We are so pleased and proud that, through this support, we were able to capture this story so beautifully.

We think we've shot something that's tender, original and sexy - and we're so excited to get into the edit!

And that's where we want to ask for your help. We need to raise a further 2.2K for our editor, sound colourist and sound designer to bring this story to life.

If you would like to see Olive over the finish line then please consider donating!

Donate £10 and get a special thanks credit and a ticket to a screening of the finished film, at a London location in Spring 2023 / online access to watch the film if you can't make the date of the screening.

Donate £20 and get a special thanks credit, a ticket to a screening of the film in Spring 2023, and 2 beautiful printed stills from the film (see our selection below!).

Donate £50 and get a special thanks credit, 2 printed stills and a bound copy of the script.

Donate £100 and get a special thanks credit, 2x stills, a bound copy of the script and an invitation to a donor's screening.

Donate £500 and get an Executive Producer credit, 2x stills, a bound copy of the script, and an invitation to a cast & crew screening.

WHY IS THIS STORY IMPORTANT?

This film is a celebration of the curiosity and vitality that we see in the elderly women in our lives. These women have taught us that older age can be a time of desire, disappointment, agonising physical pain, and a kind of epic daring required to keep throwing yourself into life. We think that as a society, we find these truths unsettling, preferring to see older people as having simpler, more peaceful internal worlds than younger people. This often means that we end up not representing older people as individuals.

So far in our casting process, we’ve noticed that there are so many incredibly talented older female actors out there, whose showreels are full of adverts for stair lifts, dementia awareness campaigns, and quite a few roles as…witches!?

We’re asking – where are stories that show women in their 80s as three-dimensional characters? How would a shift in representation affect how we treated older people around us or how we reflected on our own futures?

Supporting the making of “Olive” is an opportunity to support a unique and multi-layered exploration of the elderly female experience. It will mean that you help put something on screen that we rarely see: an elderly woman exploring her desire and sexuality.

We are so excited to bring the complexities of Olive’s story to life. But we can’t do this without your help!

If this story speaks to you, and you’d like to see what Olive gets up to during her summer, please consider supporting us to raise the last bit of funds we need to make this film happen. We are so grateful for any amount you can give us – no amount is too small.

WHERE YOUR MONEY GOES...

We are thrilled that, through the hard work of our team, we have already secured a large portion of our production expenses and confirmed an incredible location at a minimum cost. We are asking for your help to raise the extra £5,300 that will cover all outstanding expenses. We need this money for:

This gives you an idea of what we’re spending our budget on:

WHAT WILL "OLIVE" LOOK LIKE?

We want this film to be saturated in summer and to fizz with romance and connection.

Olive is our Icarus, and the sunlight is more and more present in the film as the summer intensifies and Olive gets closer to Jo.

We’re particularly excited for a scene in Olive’s garden at midnight. Think firelight, moonlit flowers, and a touch of the surreal to get us inside Olive’s desire.

MEET THE TEAM!

We’re so excited that the team behind “Olive” is a female crew:

Rosie Skan — Writer-Director

With a background in theatre and cabaret (Pecs Drag Kings) this is Rosie’s first film as a film writer/ director. She currently works as a trainee Clinical Psychologist in the NHS, and is interested in telling stories about how we change through relationships.

Arushi Chugh — Cinematographer

Arushi Chugh is a director of photography from India, currently based in the UK. A graduate from the Cinematography program at the National Film and Television School, some of the projects she has worked on have had a tremendous response at film festivals. 'Dragged Up' was shortlisted for Best British Film at Iris Prize, broadcast on Film4 and available on All4 for a year. 'Do Not Feed The Pigeons' won the BAFTA for Best Animation. 'Flavours Without Borders' was nominated for the Royal Television Society Award, New Voices Award at Edinburgh TV Festival and shortlisted at Series Fest.

Masha Egieva — Producer: “Joining this project at its later stages of development, I was captivated by the subtlety with which the script paints its protagonist and her path to self-discovery.”

Masha is a filmmaker with a background in commercial editing (Little Dot Studios), and her first short film as writer/director was selected for several festivals, including Rome, Tokyo Short Film Festivals, and Venice Shorts (USA). Alongside producing Olive, Masha is currently developing her second short film.

Joana Nastari — Intimacy Coordinator

Joana Nastari is an intimacy coordinator and director working for stage, screen, and educational spaces (LAMBA and NYT). Joana has used her 10+ years in the industry as a performer and writer and her experience in sex work activism to create an IC practice that is somatic, inclusive and playful.

Xenia Flint-Shipman — Art Director

Xenia is a London-based Art Director, Artist and Production Designer. With roots in fashion editorials and Music, Xenia designs sets and installations for commercial clients (Spotify, Google). She has also worked on award-winning narrative projects (Mandy, BBC comedy).

Nina Sielski — Assistant Production Designer

Nina is a production assistant and production designer. She is from Uruguay and New York, and moved to London to study filmmaking at UAL. After graduating, she works as a freelancer in the art department. 

Thank you so much for your time and attention in reading this! We hope you have a great summer.

The Olive team xxx