Ali Kurr

0:00Hi, I'm Ali and I'm a filmmaker. I do music videos and commercials and short films and which I'll also talk about I've just started making porn.

0:22So I started, there's some noodle photos of me when I was a kid and I basically my mom had the no TV rule.

0:30I didn't grow up with TV. I couldn't really read very well and so I'd always make plays and my first play I did when I was probably four at primary school which saw me suspended. But my mom thought the show had quite good leadership skills and I kept going with it.

0:47But I ended up getting into it at university again. I was studying at the Courtauld Institute of Art and when I was writing my dissertation I was writing about public art and I thought it was kind of boring to use figure references and photos so I started filming the work and put them on YouTube and then got some interest to make some music videos and just kind of kept running with it since then. And I guess because I didn't really formally train I assisted quite a lot and I realised that directing no one really knows what they're doing. Everyone's kind of winging it a bit but there are a couple of bits which you can't really wing. And so I want to talk to you about those things and talk you through a couple of the films. And so first of all I think the most important thing sometimes is obviously the idea and getting the idea made in the pitch. And this was a video for a band called Yonica and the song was Bubblegum. And I got the idea of making a kind of remake of the 1958 film The Blob with Steve McQueen.

1:53It's in Greece and it's the blob that kind of tears through the streets eating people up and everyone's running away. And I thought what about doing it the other way around with a bit of Bubblegum that gets bigger and bigger and people are kind of weirdly sexually attracted to it with the lead singer sort of tearing her way inside. So to win this idea I thought right, I mean this is just one of, I made three documents with this. The first was looking at this kind of model that I made. It actually took me three days even though it's really crap. And yeah, and so I kind of made this great thing with water balloons and I thought it was the best thing ever. And as per usual I sent it out and heard nothing. Which I think many people can appreciate when you stand pictures out.

2:38So I decided to do what anyone would do and I went on a social media stalk and I found out where she lived and I found out who I thought would be like a mutual friend and I basically managed to get her phone number kind of through a random who didn't know me and cold called her, sent her the video, really annoyed the commissioner and she loved it and we did end up making it and we ended up making it out of parachute silks. It was the most beautiful thing to be in.

3:07And then the kind of the seams were VFX'd out and I mean here are just some of the stills from the film.

3:13But yeah, it was really big actually. And I think I obviously always love art direction and I kind of, when I thought I'd talk about this recent film I did with an artist called Rita Saloyamas and the song was called Shut the Fuck Up and it was about racist things that people had said to her on dates. And I will just show you the opening, it's about an eight minute film but I'll just show you the opening thing which was done with a comedy actor Ben Ashenden. So you're a singer? Yeah, no I looked you up. I looked you up. I looked you up. I looked up. I was like, ooh, I didn't realize. I was quite surprised you sang in English. Well, I grew up here. Love these. So authentic. You can't find good Japanese food outside of Japan but you can here. Have you been to that Japanese place, Wagamamas? It's the one in Heathrow.

4:18It's amazing. Is it like any different to the ones? Oh yeah, yeah, because I think they hire more Asians there so it feels like the real deal. You know what, comedy writing like a fan fiction piece but from the perspective of like a little Japanese woman. So it's kind of like a new age memoirs of a geisha which is kind of cool but with more action. I mean I'm obviously indebted culturally to Kill Bill number one. Lucy Liu. Yeah, yeah, I love, yeah. Have you seen Grey's Anatomy, the one in Grey's Anatomy as well? Yeah. You remind me of her. Well Sandra Oh or Lucy Liu? Literally either. But you're like a sexier version. So, I mean, I just want to say, we'll come to Karzyn Mission. Yeah, so you like, you know, you're mixed because you don't look, you know, like, Jeba, Jeba next.

5:29So yeah. Thank you.

5:51So yeah, that was kind of, we sort of wrote it all together. It was ridiculous and really simple art direction on this one. She's a pop star so we wanted to be able to have a space that kind of could function as her dance space as well as the date. And she had this ridiculous wig on as you can see here. We wanted to, I guess, kind of look at the girl from the ring but it turned out to be a bit of a hazard on the day. And we had someone kind of holding it a bit like reins so it wasn't dropping in all the sushi.

6:19And then we also, there's sort of, I mean, you can watch the full thing if you want.

6:22And then we had this, which is, I'm sure you recognize from Oliver Ellison's Tate turbine installation. However, I'm sure we managed to orchestrate it for a fraction of the price.

6:33This was a 10 pound reflector from Amazon, which I think maybe the tape paid a bit more for this. And yeah, which was sort of just inspired there by the rising sun on the Japanese flag. And once you've got the idea and you've got the art direction, I come and do the story towards. And I thought I'd talk about this film, which is called Outer Course, which is my latest film that I just made. And it's about, well, it's about a condition that I have. I have a pain condition called vulvodynia, which is a kind of unexplained pain at the entrance of your vagina. And it makes you, it can be very painful, it can make sitting down painful, it can make sex impossible.

7:10And I decided to write a film about it. And when I was researching, I found a porn star that had the condition and was also a cam girl, which I thought was kind of an interesting choice. And I actually found out that a lot of porn stars have this condition. And so I decided, okay, well, I'll make a film about it about a porn star that can't have sex. And I was trying to find funding for this for years and was not getting anywhere. And as if anyone knows, even when you can get funding, there's no money. And someone went, well, there's this sort of feminist porn company in Barcelona that's giving 20,000 pounds out, but you've got to make a porno.

7:44So that's what I did to get the film made. And I just thought this was ridiculous because I didn't have any, we didn't, we didn't want to spend the money on a storyboard artist.

7:56So I did them myself. And as you can see, I'm not a very good artist.

8:00But I just thought I'd show you some of the storyboards and actually how they came out. So here we go.

8:04So this was just a classic one. Just a two shot. And we have a pissed off director.

8:10We did it kind of boogie night 70s style. And he's just really upset, you know, he basically sees her in a peep show, cast her in this thing, and she thinks she's in a solo scene. And he's like, no, love, like the film's called butter me up. And so he ends up kind of walking off similar vein to the kind of shut the fuck up video, sort of slightly ridiculous. And she decides to take Matt into her own hand. Everyone kind of walks off but the sound guy and the camera man. And she, yeah, so she then kind of like turns the camera on.

8:43And then this next slide, I think it's just hilarious, my drawing about how to draw sex. Just two people with squiggly legs. So here we have the sex, the reality of what it actually looked like, which is an interesting one. I mean, it was kind of setting things up that you have to run with what happens on the day, you can't be too prescriptive.

9:09And then the final moment, which was sort of this is all ungraded by the way, we're still editing it at the minute.

9:13This is just out the camera with a bit of a lot on.

9:17But yeah, the final kind of moment of post-coital bliss with this flower garland, these just some other stills.

9:21And then I guess the other really important bit is casting. And I will finish on this sport England film that I just made called This Girl Can. And it featured kind of real women aged 20 to 60 who would overcome some sort of barrier and kind of got into fitness. We'd got amazing mother daughter duo, Patrice and Yvonne. And they'd kind of helped each other getting through the menopause and polycystic ovaries.

9:51Glynness, who's a fantastic person and who was born with three partially formed limbs and is just a really fanatic swimmer. Hannah, who suffers from incredibly painful periods and yet manages to make it and does a bit of yoga and stretching. Kirstie, who has three cute children and her husband really helps her kind of get out and exercise by looking after the kids a couple of times a week. And Farrah, who is a 46 year trans woman who found acceptance through the climbing community. And I'll just finish with this film. Thank you.