INFORMATION
The Outline:
Rudie Can’t Fail is a short film about family.
Annie and her child, Keli, are sunbathing in their back gardens. They’ve lived next door to each other ever since Keli tied the knot with Rudie, the chap next door. Through their shared hedge row they’ve regularly gossiped, argued and discussed their domestic and neighbourhood ‘goings on’. Keli’s dad, can’t get his head around the TV remote, again, nothing new there. But Rudie has been unemployed for the last four years and today is different. Today Rudie has an interview. Rudie can’t fail.
The Concept:
We never meet Rudie.
We only ever meet Annie and Keli while they chat in their back gardens.
The short film is adapted from the original stage play by Anna Jefferson. We see Keli as both a son and daughter. The gender change gives us wider implications around the lives of the characters.
The script did not change from stage to screen but in changing the sex of the characters we see both a straight and gay family environment with no perceptible difference. In fact how Keli gender identifies is not relevant but we see the physical identity/ presence of the dominant character when they respond to their mother.
We shot Keli twice. In the first version Keli is Annie’s daughter. In the second, Keli is Annie’s son. Each time using the same script, the same set ups and the same characters. Rudie is Keli’s partner and is male in both versions.
We edited both versions together merging Keli-daughter and Keli-son into a single character, seeing the full script only once.
Our intentions were to play with the audience, letting them take want they want from the film. Some see a mother talking with her children, alternately a brother or sister. Some see the combination of a daughter and a son talking with their mother. As the film developed through production and the edit, in our minds, Keli became one person, one character with a male and a female personality coming to the fore and answering their mother.
Exhibition:
You can find a few of the festivals we have screened at listed below. We have been fortunate to screen at short film evenings, events and festivals across the world. If you would like to screen Rudie Can’t Fail please contact us.
August 2015
Our USA Premiere was held at Hollyshorts Film Festival in LA. Full details of that screening can be found here: http://www.hollyshorts.com/festival-schedule Hollyshorts can be found on Facebook here: www.facebook.com/Hollyshorts and Twitter here: @Hollyshorts
February 2015
Official Sel
ection @BFIFlare 2015! Rudie Can’t Fail screened in the Shorts Programme #FragileThings on Sunday 29 March at 12.45 in NFT1 .
December 2014
Our UK Premiere was held at London Short Film Festival 2015! You can find the full program here www.shortfilms.org.uk/events/2015-01-17-new-shorts-family-affairs LSFF can be found on Facebook here: www.facebook.com/londonshortfilmfestival and Twitter here: @LSFF
October 2014
Our Danish Premiere was held with MIX Copenhagen 2014. You can find Mix Copenhagen on Facebook www.facebook.com/mixcopenhagen and Twitter @MIXCOPENHAGEN
July 2014
Our Irish Premiere was held at GAZE International LGBT Film Festival. You can find GAZE on Facebook www.facebook.com/gazefilmfest and Twitter @GAZEfilmfest.
