Director Biography – Jo Southwell (ENTRANCE NO EXIT)

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Jo is an award winning film director with titles including HOLDING ON, COVER ME, DEIRDRE and THE GUNMAN. In 2017, Jo was selected by Directors UK to be a mentee to Jon East on Killing Eve (BBC USA). She is shortlisted for the BBC Directors Scheme for emerging talent.

In development, DEIRDRE OF THE SORROWS Feature with Tara Fitzgerald and Mac and Beth with Jon Finn attached.(producer Billy Elliott.)

Director Statement

Entrance No Exit is a funny and moving look at OCD. As soon as I read the script I knew I had to make this short film. Not only is it written in such a way that I could visualize the whole story – it allows the audience to learn and feel for an OCD sufferer without all those cliched moments so often acted out on screen.

When designing the colour palette and shot list, I looked through comedy film directors I admire and most importantly – make me laugh ! I watched lots of clips of physical comedy and used these as stepping stones to this film.

Using a single location – albeit an aeroplane really helped out ability to capture the story we wanted to tell.

As a crowd funded short there were certain limitations BUT a massive thank you to everyone who helped create this vision. I hope you love it and LAUGH.

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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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