Claudia Lee is a London-based Writer and director. She recently presented her short film ‘Bodily Renaissance’, an experimental poem short exploring the protagonist’s struggle with body image and dysmorphia, at the Shorts on Tap film festival.
Thank you for agreeing to catch up with Occhi Magazine. Please tell us more about yourself and your introduction to filmmaking.
My introduction to filmmaking began as a tween making slasher horror movies on my old video camera with my best friends during the school summer holidays. The end product was high camp and hilarious but somehow it still hit the mark on some of the fundamentals of cinematic storytelling. Making those movies scratched an itch for me that set me on a path toward filmmaking in earnest.
Who were your early influences and how did they impact your career?
Musicals were the films that spoke to me the most from a young age, especially ones that were heavy on spectacle and scale. When I returned to these childhood films as an adult, especially RobMarshall’s‘Chicago’and Baz Luhrmann’s‘Moulin Rouge’I came to them with a newfound appreciation and sense of awe at what an achievement those films truly are. Music plays a huge role in all my work and, in some ways, is my favorite element of the filmmaking process. Nothing within a film has as much transformative and emotive potential as music. Long-term careerwise, I’m ultimately working towards the end goal of making my own movie musical of that style and scope, with an emotional and visual splendor that is unparalleled in every other genre of film. That’s when I’ll know I’ve made it.
You wrote and directed Bodily Renaissance. Please tell us more about your movie, and what inspired you to make it.
Bodily Renaissance came about as a result of my own historic struggles with body image and body dysmorphia. I felt highly isolated growing up with these issues and the shame I felt around it was worsened with a lack of dialogue in the mainstream about the subject. After I went through therapy and began my journey to recovery, I felt the desire to make a film that shined a light on my experiences so that I might connect with others struggling alone as I had. I wrote a poem about my experience which immediately felt like it would make an interesting voiceover for the film so I began the process of creating ’Bodily Renaissance ’ with the poem as the central anchor of the piece.
What is your advice to young filmmakers who want to tell their stories?
Don’t be afraid to show your most vulnerable self in the work you create. That authenticity, which is often dark or uncomfortable to address, is the very thing your audience will relate to and connect with most. Even though it can feel daunting to expose those parts of yourself, lean into it.
What projects are you working on or have in the pipeline?
I’m developing a documentary short and a dance film at the moment, plus working on my first feature script too right now, which is equal parts exciting and challenging…
For further information on Claudia, please visit her website
All images are courtesy of the artist.
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