“Your Maybe Is Also a No” Ita O’Brien on How Intimacy Coordination Changed the Film Industry for the Better

"No is a gift to yourself and to others. If you haven't truly created a space where someone can say no, you can't trust the yes."

The work of intimacy coordination goes far deeper than sexual choreography. In our conversation with Ita O’Brien - the industry pioneer behind this now intrinsic role and some of the most talked-about intimate scenes of recent years for their realism - she reflects on consent, creative safety, and why learning to say no might be the most radical act on and off a film set.

Holocene

"With our work together I want to create something that has answers if you’re willing to engage with it. Those are my favourite types of films overall."

Andrew De Zen returns to his ever fruitful collaboration with Alaskan Tapes in Holocene - blending stunning cinematography with visual effects for the story of a young couple grappling with the dilemma of whether to bring a baby into an ever-declining world.

You Can’t Talk to the Dude

"The whole point of the short to me was to create an image that exists outside of my interpretation of it, and I’d be far more interested in hearing what others think of it than prescribing meaning."

Lucas Murphy delivers an intriguing, creepy, and humorous short based on an idea that had him asking questions of himself and will now do the same for all those who watch his horror comedy, You Can't Talk to the Dude. The first-time director shares with us the fears that fuelled the story, working with his producer brother and full production crew - narrowly avoiding disaster along the way - and his brutal, then brilliant experience of the festival circuit.

Afterplay

"The fly becomes something to hide behind. It's the perfect bullshit distraction."

When a loaded conversation between a couple goes somewhere neither wants to go, they reach for the nearest distraction. Iris Breward's Afterplay is a sharply funny, uncomfortably relatable performance-focused study in avoidance, power games, and everything a couple won't or can't say to each other's faces.

Still Standing

"The struggle of these people is a real-life nightmare: imagine your most intimate spaces, filled with invisible contaminants, but you're being told your worries are all in your head. That's a horror film."

Turning 16mm film stock, degraded tape and suffocating silence into tools of witness, filmmaking duo Victor Tadashi Suarez & Livia Albeck-Ripka's short film Still Standing documents the invisible crisis unfolding inside Altadena's contaminated standing homes in the wake of the Eaton Fire.

In the Heart of the Flower Citadel

"I wanted to push against some of the conventions of fashion filmmaking and create something that embodies both the brand and myself as a filmmaker."

When Adam Muscat joined forces with artist-designer nil00, the result wasn't a traditional fashion promo but a world-building short film and immersive installation. Read how hand-drawn storyboards, reflective paint and bleach-bypass treated 16mm footage melded to create In The Heart Of The Flower Citadel.