Maeve Murphy, 'St Pancras Sunrise', London International Screenwriting and Film Festival, Best Short Film, Winner

'St Pancras Sunrise' Directed by Maeve Murphy, London International Screenwriting and Film Festival, Best Short Film, Winner

- Can you please tell us about you and your daily life?

 I live with my husband Richard in Wimbledon, and we have a quiet domestic existence, which is very good for writing unless I am involved in the insanity and adrenalin-fueled activity of filmmaking and directing when my daily routine goes out the window. I need, love both for balance. 

- When and how did you get into writing/filmmaking?

I came into writing via fringe theatre and then moved into filmmaking when a co-written play and first draft screenplay of it was read by Ken Loach, who I met by chance, and he introduced me to his producer. I ended up working at his company Parallax Pictures, firstly as a runner/receptionist but then also as a screenwriter, and the first version of what became the feature "Beyond the Fire" My first short, Amazing Grace, was made from their basement with their huge support. It's so important to get connected to the industry so it is real, and not just a dream, and you learn so much from simply being around the best. 

- How often do you write & create ideas? Do you have a working routine? And what inspires you to create?

I have to be inspired to create. It has to touch me or delight me, or excite me on some level, I have to connect with it emotionally, have a passion for it. I really love stories of spirit, often women or people gathering together, especially when they are the underdog, that inspires me. I am often socially driven, fights for justice, but I like showing the fight is worth it, or worth mentioning. I like stories of unusual friendship or stories of unusual romance driven by empathy or compassion. I think compassion and tolerance are lacking in society, and I want to tell stories that open hearts as well as outrage against injustice. I love creating really interesting, complex characters, humanising people often women that people see in a narrow way. 

I try to write a little every day. I think you need to stay in practise. When I have a commission it will often be full days. 

- How does it feel to have your work recognised?

There is always this slight shock of joy when I win a competition. I am never expecting it, and it always comes with a start. It's a lovely feeling for you and all involved. Getting work published also has a similar shock of joy feeling. Getting work produced is just as fulfilling and life-affirming, but it tends to evolve more gradually when there is a tipping point when you feel it is going to happen. Also there is like a fear it may not, you never feel 100% safe until you get to the first day of principle photography. And then it's a total blast! I love the whole process then. 

- What's the best and most challenging thing about writing a Filmmaking and writing? 

The best thing is when you get lost in the writing process, that is lovely and very enjoyable. I love it also when you think you know what it is all about, and you mostly do, but then the piece reveals itself to you, like you are co-creating with your unconscious. The most challenging thing about screenwriting is feeling you have a really satisfying ending, as I think endings are very important in films and tend to sum up what they are all about, emotionally and thematically and also what you, yourself, are saying or believing or sharing and you don't want it to be too neat, but you want it to have an impact. 

Writing is re-writing, and you have to just hand yourself over to that while also staying loyal or remembering what excited you about a project in the first place. 

Film making the best thing is having everything prepared, and then suddenly you are there with people, and they are inputting their humanity or thoughts, and suddenly magic happens, something fresh opens, which couldn't happen if you weren't prepared. It's a paradox. It's the beauty of the flow of the creative process. 

-  How did you develop the idea for your LISP-selected film? Is there a story behind your story? And, how long have you been working on it?

Around covid time, I wrote a story that was published in The Irish Times, which drew on my time when I lived in Kings Cross, in the early 90s when it was still a red light. It was a time when I was trying to become an artist on my own as the theatre company I had been with had broken up. There was cheap accommodation in temporary housing co ops and all sorts of people were living there. It was a defining moment for me and I was quite alone and I really wanted to pay tribute to one particular friendship I had with a neighbour who I was a bit scared of at the start but who decided we would be friends, and then I found her to be a true friend. And she kind of got lost and I wanted to just pay tribute to her and people like her I met there, such a strong fighting spirit existed there, it was very unique, a real community spirit, even though it was also in the midst of hell, very dangerous, in fact at times. The Irish Times carried on serialising it, and halfway through, I discovered in my research about Patsy Malones Kings Cross sex worker killed by a police officer. It really touched me, as she lived in the flats I had been living in. It shook me, she was young, and she seemed to have such a strong life force, from what I read about her, not someone who would take any shit. Not someone you expect to be murdered. I also discovered the church occupation photos on a google search when looking to see if there had been any women's protests in Kings Cross. I spoke with the ECP who did it. 

All this helped with Screen Ireland coming on board for the screenplay and the Tile, the production company, as not only had it an audience via the Irish Times, but there was an authenticity to it. 

So it is like one thing builds to the next thing, in a very organic but building block way. The short story laid the way for the short film which strengthens the movement of the feature film script currently in development towards production. People seem to be happy with the success of the short film, and winning this award really will help get the feature film financed. 

This has all happened over a 4 year period, but for films, that is actually not that unusual! 

- Can you please give us a few tips about Filmmaking?

I think enthusiasm, patience, getting feedback and risk taking. I think you have to have a passion for what you are doing. You have to have patience also as things take a while sometimes. Though on saying that, sometimes you have to jump, take that risk, whatever it is. But also seek and get feedback. Not all of it you will agree to, but some will really help and clarify where the weaknesses and strengths lie. 

- What's the best thing and the most challenging thing about competitions and festivals? 

The best thing about festivals is the meeting with the community of other writers or writer/directors or film/ TV people, it is always very rejuvenating. I think festivals are very good for artists well being! I don't find them a challenge, really, unless there is a dress code and I have to work out what to wear, even then, it can be nice to dress up! 

- Lastly, do you recommend the writers & filmmakers submit to LISP & LISFF?

I do recommend writers to LISP as I can feel it has great spirit, integrity and respect for writers and filmmakers which is always the most important thing.