Her exciting Female Filmmakers entry shows miners in Africa through the #FemaleLens
Starting a long line of filmmaker spotlights on female filmmakers leading up to Audience Awards Film Festival in early April, we highlight filmmaker Lucy LP. Her film Galamsey (which means “gather them and sell” in pidgin English) is currently entered into our Female Filmmakers contest. Galamsey follows three friends in West Africa, illegal gold miners in a town being plundered by big business. Mirroring the oil fields of America today, the gold rush in West Africa which followed 2008’s global financial collapse brought with it all the ambition, darkness, hope and danger a circumstance like this creates. Lucy’s first short film captures this push/pull in a subtle and ambitious way.
Lucy didn’t start out as a filmmaker. She was a geologist first, which is perhaps what gives Galamsey such an intimate, grounded feel. The landscape and sets, along with the relationships between main character Adama, feel authentic and gritty. The production shows clearly the difference between their external circumstances and those of miners employed by Fitzroy Corporation. Adama and his friends go deep into the ground equip with pickaxes and flashlights taped to rubber headbands, while Fitzroy miners walk by in full protective gear. As Adama points out, “Those guys are looked after … they even have a clinic there.” But none of that can compete with the prospect of finding the motherlode, no matter what the danger.
Whether by intention or happenstance, nearly all of Galamsey’s above-the-line positions were filled by women. Her executive producer was Hannah Blackwell of Corrino Media and her production supervisor was Lena Mesiano, both of whom worked on the critically acclaimed Other People. Lucy herself, as writer and director, was seven months pregnant during the film’s production. “Lil’ Nova Rose was born six weeks after wrap!” she says, proving that which makes women different certainly doesn’t make them weaker.
Aside from women in film, short-form film is another Audience Awards passion. When asked why she chose to start the story of Galamsey as a short she says, “Anything goes. You can try whatever you want. It’s an amazing canvas for experimenting and simply just trying.”
Lucy’s next project is a feature film based off of this short. Living in rural West Africa was one of the things that inspired her to become a filmmaker. “I became so mesmerised by the way of life there. I saw the elements of society in their simplest and rawest forms there. Suddenly having that perspective (something to compare to the superficial weirdness of western society) was a trigger for me to want to tell stories and make films about it.” Her next project is a feature version of Galamsey. We wish her luck in the Female Filmmaker competition and in all her future pursuits!
To find out more about the Galamsey project visit www.galamseyshortfilm.com
VOTING OPENS
Mar 21, 2017 at 12:00pm MST (America/Denver)
VOTING CLOSES
Mar 28, 2017 at 12:00pm MDT (America/Denver)
