My guest, Lee Knight, won Best Director at 2025's HollyShorts for his stunning film, A FRIEND OF DOROTHY (2025), but you wouldn't know it because as you just heard, his thoughts are with the indie filmmakers still out there struggling. That sounds exactly like my type of filmmaker to host on the podcast.
A FRIEND OF DOROTHY could be described as "a lonely widow's quiet life is upended when a teenage boy accidentally kicks his football into her garden", but that doesn't do justice to the casting, the lighting, the cinematography, and the music of this short. It's brilliant filmmaking from a man who worked his way up to making it, and I'm so glad to have him on the show to celebrate his success and talk about how he made it happen.
In this episode, Lee and I discuss:
- after winning best director at HollyShorts, what he wished he knew before the festival run started;how he got started in filmmaking, initially honing his craft as an actor, and if he has one favorite;actors' relationships with older actors and whether it's something he's uniquely talented;why he waited for A FRIEND OF DOROTHY to be his directorial debut;if rejection is different as an actor versus a director;what he wants people to be thinking of when they watch his first film as a director;why he set up the film the way he did, with an intro that "plays with the audience";the runtime of 23 minutes and its reaction from programmers;the brilliant casting of the film and how his judgment as an actor influenced the final decisions;the consul general hosted a party for British filmmakers in Los Angeles. Can the UK do more to promote its filmmakers?what's next for this uniquely talented filmmaker.
Lee's Indie Film Highlights: 22+1 (2025) dir. by Pippa Bennett-Warner; COOL BOY (2024) dir. by Peter Bjerre Salling
Memorable Quotes:
"I look back on my career as an actor and I think there was always there was always a writer director there, even when I was training. And I think it's because of ownership of story."
"I also think that the film highlights a kind of safety that older people give, and specifically older women and as a gay man, and I think a lot of gay people say this...we always loved and felt very safe with older women. "
"You have to be forced to dig deep because every time you are rejected, it's the same as an actor, every time you are rejected, if you stop, you just are missing out on digging that bit deeper to kind of really push forward."
"When did you want to be a filmmaker? And I think I didn't, I wanted to be everything -- a storyteller in every sense, whatever medium it takes."
"I actually don't think it's my job as a director to know about lenses. My job is to have people that are experts in that field and then we collaborate."
"You've got to surround yourself with people you trust who are not going to feed your ego."
"I really believe that you've got to aim high with actors because if they connect with your story...they don't do short films for the money...they will do it if they really believe in the story."
"If you need to really get an actor to feel safe and vulnerable...it's a bespoke job."
Links:
Follow Lee On Instagram
Follow A FRIEND OF DOROTHY on Instagram
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