Writer/Director Lia Campbell is a participant in the Future Foundation mentorship scheme funded by Future Screens NI and based at Queen’s University. While under mentorship she created Run with Her, a short creative documentary focusing on female athletes from Willowfield Athletics Club in East Belfast.
“Endurance running creates a secure world for 16-year-old Emmy, where everything can be quantified. As influences from the outside world start to permeate, we follow the change it might bring to her relationships with the other girls on the team and within herself.”
Run with Her has been selected to screen at the BAFTA qualifying 74th Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) which takes place at the heart of Edinburgh’s festival season, between 18th and 25th August, and presents a fantastic programme of feature and short films celebrating the long-awaited return to cinema.
Run with Her will receive its World Premiere in the Bridging the Gap – Mobile selection on Filmhouse at Home.
While creating Run with Her Lia worked closely with Future Foundation mentor John McIllduff, who offered advice and creative feedback throughout. She is currently being mentored by Future Foundation’s Darren Young, creative director of Young Creative.
Lia is the Writer and Director and Anna Callan is the Producer, with Executive Producers: Walk on Air Films. The film was commissioned and funded by the Scottish Documentary Institute, Screen Scotland and Northern Ireland Screen. It features a cast of Willowfield athletes: Emmy Thorton, Mabelle Wilcox, Emer McKee, Kirsti Foster, Erin McDermott, Erin Cross and Emily Morris.
This year’s Edinburgh festival will be a mix of online and in-person screenings, with Run with Her being streamed from the Filmhouse website from 4pm this Sunday 22nd August.
Tickets are available here:
https://www.filmhouseathome.com/bundle/shorts-bridging-the-gap-mobile/
Official NIScreen Press release: https://www.northernirelandscreen.co.uk/news/filming-in-northern-ireland/northern-ireland-shorts-selected-screening-eiff/
Scottish Documentary Institute Press Release:
https://www.scottishdocinstitute.com/2021/07/28/bridging-the-gap-mobile-at-eiff/
Instagram Account: https://www.instagram.com/runwithherfilm/
Team
Lia Campbell is an Irish-German filmmaker working in fiction and documentary. A graduate from the IADT National Film School, Dún Laoghaire, her fictional debut ‘To All My Darlings’ won the Audience Award for best short film at the Virginmedia Dublin International Film Festival 2021 and was shortlisted for a GSA BAFTA award 2021. For the past year, Lia has worked as the production assistant for Dumbworld - an artist led creative production company established in 2009 by composer/conductor Brian Irvine and filmmaker/writer/director John McIllduff – a Future Foundation mentor.
Anna Callan Since graduating with a BA Architecture in July 2016 Anna has been working consistently in the Film and TV Industries. Over the past three years she has worked as an Assistant Director on productions ranging from HETV to Film and Comedy, including ‘Game of Thrones’, ‘Bloodlands’ and ‘The Northman’ and is currently working as a Producer’s Assistant on the Netflix film ‘The School for Good and Evil’, filming in Belfast. In November 2020 Anna received funding from Northern Ireland Screen to produce the BBC Two Minute Masterpiece ‘Best Served Cold’ which premiered on the BBC Iplayer and is available to watch across the UK.
Dumbworld makes work that is to be found at the intersection of music, image and words including film, opera, documentary, oratorio, animation, public art installation, performance pieces, theatre, and curatorial projects. John McIllduff and the Dumbworld team – Brian Irvine, Susanna Lagan & Koichi Samuels supported Lia throughout the development and production of Run with Her.
Poster image: Jess Whelan
Stills photography: David Copeland
The Future Foundation mentorship scheme is funded by Future Screens NI