Writer: James Lees & William Bridges. Director: James Lees Producer: Phil Lloyd
Crew: Director: James Lees Producer: James Lees Writer/Creators: James Lees & William Bridges Director of Photography: Mattias Nyberg Editor: Tony Norton Sound Design: Craig Butters Assistant Director: William Bridges Art Dept: Heather Burtt
Synopsis: The most talked-about short documentary of the year: based around the creation of a real-life 'apology line' where members of the public can anonymously confess to absolutely anything, over the phone. Director James Lees came up with the idea after hearing about the original apology line project in New York, conceived by artist Allan Bridge. James took the concept and pitched a short doc/experimental hybrid film with the phoneline as the starting point.
Film Awards & Festival Info
The Apology Line has been selected to screen at some of the most prestigious international festivals including:
Sundance Film Festival (USA) SXSW Film Festival (USA) Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (France) Cork International Film Festival (Ireland) Britdoc (UK) Raindance Film Festival (UK) Flickerfest International Film Festival (Australia) And has also been selected and will screen at these upcoming festivals:
Seattle International Film Festival (USA) Hot Docs (Canada) SilverDocs AFI/Discovery Channel International Documentary Film Festival (USA) Nashville Film Festival (USA) IndieLisboa (Portugal) IFF Artfilm (Slovakia) International Eskisehir Film Festival
It has also been shortlisted for and won the following awards:
Prix UIP Best European Short - Cork Film Festival 2008 Special Jury Mention - Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival The Best Short Documentary Award-Hotdocs Film Festival, Canada 2008 Nominated in the Short Film Category for the 2008 European Film Academy Awards Turkey
Film-maker bio:
James Lees James runs a small production company called The Hobo Film Company through which he produces documentary, pop promos, corporate promos and internet virals. The company currently has various projects under development including a feature length documentary set in Cairo, Egypt. The film The Apology Line is the first project to be developed from the Apology Line art project, set up in 2006. The project is ongoing and is due to be turned into an art gallery installation, radio play and book.
A very visual director James also works as a freelance cameraman and photographer. The last project he shot was a half hour documentary for Al Jazeera International about secretarian problems in the Kingdom of Bahrain. His photography has been published in magazines and the press and been used for commercially released cd artwork. From a very young age James was heavily involved in the arts. Performing in various theatre companies he established a solid background in performance arts. However this soon began to give way to his visual and directorial sensibilities as he took the directorial reigns in theatre and started learning the craft of filmmaking at a local cable tv station. Three years at film school and time getting to grips with the film industry in the post production world of Soho followed before he embarked on a freelance career. James's recent credits include directing the video for Josh Pyke's 'Forever Song' and and internet vireal campaign for Gendrick's Gin. He is currently producing two documentaries for Al Jazeera English and is in the process of turning The Apology Line into a longer format documentary.
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