Short Film: DYING FOR A LIVING, 13min., UK, Documentary

 

Dying for living film poster with laurels flatten 150A sensitive, contrasting portrait of Shaun Morris, a 57 year old extroverted undertaker living hand-to-mouth in Southampton. Surviving on a zero hours contract, the opportunity of a permanent job appears which could change his life dramatically.

This story is a sensitive, touching portrait about Shaun, a self-deprecating, witty undertaker who is struggling to earn enough money for basic human needs, rent, food and clothes, but who attains self-fulfillment via his noble profession of undertaking. As we follow him on his pursuit of a full-time contract with his firm, we listen to Shaun’s reflections on his life and the choices he has made. The two accomplishments he is most proud of is doing his job well and producing a well rounded 21 year old daughter. Through his story we understand our innate survival methods, our need for acceptance and validation from others and that maybe talking about our own death isn’t so bad after all.

  • Film Type:
    Documentary, Short, Student
  • Runtime:
    13 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    January 4, 2017
  • Production Budget:
    100 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Film Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color

By femalefilmfestival

The irony of this festival is that its goal is to not be around in 5 years time. To eventually not be relevant because there is zero need to have a festival geared for female talent and female stories because the stories presented in Hollywood and around the world are a balanced showcase of the human experience from both sexes. Our goal is to achieve a lot of success and then fold into oblivion simply because there is no need for this festival. This festival was created by the FEEDBACK Film & Writing Festival as a simple reaction to a strong need to showcase female talent from around the world in a more profound way. When putting together the weekly festival, the administration noticed a lack of a female presence in the stories being shown at the festival. A classic example and analogy to the frustration is how the festival noticed that even the smaller roles in a screenplay were written for a man to play. There was zero reason for this in many stories. How a police officer, or a political campaign manager, for example with 3-4 lines in a screenplay was a "HE" character. Why? And these are the screenplays written by the winners! The talented one who have obtained agents and have began/beginning their careers as a writer.

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