The Film.
CAN GRACE STOP HERSELF BEING BURIED?
BURY YOUR GAYS is a dark comedy that follows the story of Grace, a jobbing actor who cannot understand why she keeps being killed off. That is until she meets a mysterious agent who explains the trope; Bury your Gays.
Join Grace as she navigates her actor’s mortality through different film and TV genres and desperately tries to fulfil the agent’s one task... DO NOT DIE.
The Synopsis.
We meet our lead Grace, a masc. presenting queer actor, on the set of a low budget hospital continuing drama, shooting what should be her deathbed scene. Roles that end in death are common for Grace, something she blames her management for. However, on this particular day, doing this particular scene, something inside of Grace snaps. She protests with the director that her character has great potential and doesn’t need to die. The director disagrees and Grace storms off set.
When Grace steps off set, she enters a world unknown; a white-space-sky-scape. Has she died? She spots a woman dressed in a white power suit looming behind a desk. She recognises this woman to be a legendary queer actor - an actor she grew up watching onscreen. Seeing headshots scattering the woman’s desk and a whiteboard with more headshots circling the word ‘death’, Grace assumes the woman is now an agent.
The Agent sits Grace down and tells her that she has been brought here as she has just experienced her fifth onscreen burial. She explains that it’s no coincidence she keeps getting killed off, but the fault of an old narrative trope known as ‘Bury Your Gays’. There is just one problem, you only get nine lives, and alarmingly Grace has already used five of them. Armed with this knowledge, the Agent announces that Grace has been booked for another job and cautions her with one instruction… DO NOT DIE.
From a gritty independent film, to a hallmark movie, to a dark drama – Grace is pitted against the stereotypes that have haunted her career. The stakes are high, and survival is key. As she struggles to outlive her characters, a question hangs in the balance: What’s the final act for an actor who’s out of lives?
CREDITS
Written & Directed by: Charlotte Serena Cooper
Produced by: Charlotte Brownlee
Director of Photography: Dale McCready BSC NZCS
Executive Producers
Anthony Toma
Boris Thompson-Roylance
Jack Thompson-Roylance
Anthony Toma
T’Nia Miller
Dan Hubbard CDG CSA
Karen Jankel
Marisol Adler
Mike Cooper & Serena Hordon
Aisling Hughes
Martin Hordon
Lesley Hordon
Matthew Sampson
William Hines
Costume Designer: Oliver Doherty
Hair & Makeup Designer: Gemma Hoff
Editor: Joshua Cunliffe
1st Assistant Director: Amy Coop
2nd Assistant Director: Tom Turner
3rd Assistant Director: Ahmed Amare
Crowd 3rd Assistant Director: Ross McGowan
Runner: Giorgia Ramella
Production Manager: Alina-Bianca Nitu
Production Coordinator: Sophia Scott
Production Team: Esther Eason, Joe Madden, Kathryn Chorley, Lucy Jessica
Stunt Co-ordinator: Nick Williams
Dialect Coach: Sarah Shepherd
Script Supervisor: Guilia Patane
Unit Medic: Dr James Strong
Locations Manager: Sam Seccombe, Harriet Still
Locations Marshall: Andrea Ratti
B Camera Operator: Ruth Woodside
A Camera 1st AC: Sam Irwin
A Camera 2nd AC: Jojo Bossman
B Camera 1st AC: Elliot Purvis, Johnny Treherne
B Camera 2nd AC: Nic Batten, Niamh Kavanagh
Camera Trainees: Harvey Davidson, Finn Eason
Key Grip: Matthew McCabe
B Camera Grip: Beau Williams, Dan Winter
Digital Imaging Technician: Lincoln Benjamin
DIT Trainee: Mike Wiwathanopas
Sound Mixer: Taz Fairbanks
Boom Operator: Millie Akerman-Blankley
Gaffer: Stuart King
Electricians: Andy George, Craig Broughton, Damian Smyth, Daniel Sarpong, Max Ashworth
Costume Supervisor: Zachary Winnington
Principal Costume Standby: Jessica Allen
Costume Design Assistant: Morgan Russell
Costume Trainee: Tabitha Eason
Hair & Makeup Supervisor: Sue Michael
Hair & Makeup Artist: Laura Randall, Em Balazs
Hair & Makeup Junior: Issy O’Niall
Production Designer: Harrison Clark
Art Director: Leo Otovic
Set Decorator & Graphic Designer: Alice Nutley
Standby Props: Quinn Cooke
1st Assistant Editor: Ethan Roberts
Picture Post: Cinelab Film & Digital
Colourist: Joshua Callis-Smith
DI Producer: John Bush
DI Assistant: Dylan Saville
Dailies Operator: Fabio Cachucho
Composer: Charlotte Partt
Post Sound by: Formosa
VFX Producer: Paddy Eason
Casting by: Dan Hubbard Casting
Casting Director: Dan Hubbard CDG CSA
Casting Director: Fran Cattaneo
Casting Assistant: William Smith
WITH THANKS
Adam McGrady
Alexander Hunter
Ashley Louise
Ben Rothstein
Buccaneer Media
Christopher Dillon
Courtney Brown
Courtney Simmons
Dr Holly Brownlee
Edward Gregson
Harry Holland
Helen Ashton
Jamie Oliver Harvey
Jenny Wright
Jillian Apfelbaum
John Dillon
Jose Manuel
Julie Bozza
Julie Dillon
Kate Hazell
Katharine Churcher
Laura Richardson
Lisa Woods
Lulu Morgan
Lynne Fleury
Maddison Marieges Moore
Matthew Penry-Davey
Maxine Sloman
Natasha Booluck
Nick Dillon-Mansfield
Patrick McKay
Paul Wilmshurst
Richie Palmer
Robin Pagnanelli
Samuel Harman
Sarah Berg
Sarah Dowling
Sarah Shepherd
Susie Hunt
Tess Annan
William Hughes