Iggy London

0:00 [Applause]

0:10 hello everyone how are you guys thank you very much my name is iggy london I am a filmmaker born and raised in east london and yeah I tell stories which are like I call them visual storytelling visual poetry it's the idea of I don't know the image meeting emotion meeting movement and yeah that's kind of what I do before I kind of show you kind of like what my kind of the film that I want to like basically showcase today. I just wanted to let you know kind of like my backstory. And it all started when I was in the womb I'm joking it's not like that but basically I just want to tell you a little bit like yeah why how I kind of started I saw started in a really weird way I didn't actually want to become a filmmaker I actually wanted to become a firefighter or an actor or a dancer I basically want to become anything other than actually a director and I don't know I think it kind of all started in 2015.

1:14 I'm one of those people where even though I can talk for the queen of england I really like the idea of being quite silent in terms of my emotions so I I wrote a lot I think I was speaking to a friend recently and I was like I actually do love to just write to express myself and not tell anyone about what I'm writing and I wrote this poem called black boys on crime. And it was kind of like this homage to what I was feeling at the time it was like this experience of basically being a black boy in london growing up and just navigating life. And I felt like when I was in university I didn't know I didn't necessarily fit in I wasn't like them like a big like popular kid and I kind of like wrote just to kind of express my story and more I thought I thought life was and the tension between being a black boy living in a place that just didn't fit right for me and like I felt that you know I needed to kind of escape so I wrote a poem called blood boys don't cry I actually didn't express show it to anyone and then one of my friends was like you need to perform that at an event like a talent show I was like no and then they were like yo you should like it's amazing like you have something to say and I was like no and then eventually I was like I I figured I was like okay I need to do it almost like yeah I need to just I need to like fight my fears and so I did and I'll give you a little rendition if you want and it goes like this they said I would inherit the earth one day so no one could know I was weak because men like us don't cry you see the wailing is much rather left to the woman to endure we hold the light for the rest of the sea we are the prophecy that was written in the stars if it's not our job to be breadwinners then we have to be feared you see we must be feared anyway. That's that's a little bit of it and thank you and yeah.

3:11 So basically he showcased it to loads of people. And then. There were one I think one person on the back of the room kind of hit me up and was like you should do a film about this.

3:20 This is really important I was like no I don't want to as I know.

3:25 This is really important so as a new year's resolution in 2016 I basically made a film I got loads of people loads of all my friends and like people that I knew just to kind of like make it happen and it was just like 50 pounds in my pocket let's just make a beautiful film and eventually yeah kind of screened it in hudson basement in east london and yeah it was beautiful I got a great like reaction people loved it. And I thought that that was amazing me done I'll just continue trying to be an actor and but then.

4:01 I had the urge next year I wrote another poem called fatherhood and it was actually from experience I had in school when basically people like people would always assume that you didn't live with your dad it was a weird thing where people just assume like you just live with your mum so I like the idea of like thinking about or questioning myself as to where do fathers go if they don't live in those in their family homes and I kind of like and knowing fully that if you even if you had a father who was not with you. There was a there's this like link this like you know the spiritual link or this like connection that you have with someone that you're tethered to them even though you're not like by design even though you're not actually with them.

4:46 So I did that kind of story which is a continuation of black boys and cry and people like that which is nice and then eventually in 2018 I directed my first ever commission piece called velvet and it's of a kid who's this happy-go-lucky almost billy elliot character and he's just living life and dancing and moving in the space and suddenly something altercation happens and he loses his life.

5:15 But we don't get to see the perpetrator we don't see the actual the weapon because I think that so many times those things are actually like weaponized and utilized in media to basically and rub out who the character or the identity of the person is so it's kind of interesting basically doing a film which focuses so entirely on the character and who that character is and at the end of the film.

5:40 Basically there's a connection between the mother and the son and basically she feels all the pain that he feels at the time of his his death you should go watch it if you can that's that'll be really helpful and so double click my instagram if you want to and then.

5:54 So I I realized like I actually could be a filmmaker that.

5:56 This is an actual thing that people do but I actually didn't know any filmmakers except for spike lee or like like the big ones and also they were all like americans so I didn't know if there was an actual thing at the time I was also just inspired by the idea of like pushing forward boundaries and challenging my stereotypes and challenging the status quo growing up I didn't necessarily see films that were related to me I think I was always like kind of like looking at boys in the hood or I look at you know there's a tv show called mouisha or like fresh person bella everyone else restaurants will learn and I just thought that I wanted to be able to tell the stories that were interesting in the uk like what's happening in the uk like let's all let's even go back let's not even talk about what's happening in the uk let's just talk about love two people like their emotion and their connections and what they feel and how they feel it.

6:51 So I just kept on making films that excited me. And I felt that. That's a way into the film industry I didn't know I hadn't been on any any set or any like other person say in my life except for only one that's over into one sort of set but other than that I've just basically become a director by force yeah.

7:12 So I continued to make work that felt I felt challenging to say it's quite a champion interesting talented voices I worked with incredible artist called junior williams on his first ever music video which is my first ever musical video that I directed and then I continued to write poetry and make personal projects that I felt like were resonated to me.

7:34 And I collaborated with brands such as nounis and nike and then eventually this started well earlier this year I got asked after I finished this this kind of commission for the british vogue to have a chat with harrods and before I just explain to you what the kind of the kind of campaign was I hadn't really kind of focused about what fashion does and like fashion meeting my work I haven't I hadn't really thought about that before in a long time. And I wanted to make something beautiful and profound at the same time I didn't want to just be a normal random fashion film because they're cute and they're nice but it's all like all about the clothes and I just don't mind that.

8:18 So I wanted something which was interesting and I actually shook people.

8:22 So I'll play it for you now.

8:24 And if you like it let me know h is for the hangers that hold him slices of heaven that we get to slide on or use to hide from or create house inside hoodie or halter neck depending on what feels right sometimes I like to wear my happiness like a headband take my hope out of my handbag h is for the hook and I and the way we are tied to each other however we like h is for those who don't ask how have just found hand-me-downs that hold history and held onto stories woven into h lines h is for those of us that make horizons from hurricanes h is for the haymakers and headlights who rewrite hieroglyphics and headlines fight hierarchies in all hours that powers the hum of the generation that has come and made home here right here ♪

9:30 that's it [Applause]

9:34 thank you thank you just a little bit about the idea and how it kind of came about harrods were like we want you to make a film that is you. And I was like okay thank you what's the what's what's the brief what's the what's the idea give me more and they were like make a film with loads of people. And it needs to be super fashiony and there's gonna be loads of clothes but there's only one rule you need to shoot inherits and I was like okay do that let's do that.

10:05 So I like the idea of basically making I'm super a fan of like just community and identity as I said before.

10:11 And I like the idea of making a film that just speaks on the london creative scene like what does harris look like contemporary like in the modern day that involving the people I don't know involving the london creation at the helm of fashion at the helm of creativity so basically the whole idea is like championing championing like interesting voices that tell stories that that are musicians that are artists coming together and having harassed as their playground so as you can see there's loads of running shots there's loads of like these cut aways we're just looking at the new generation and almost up like being up like positive or being looking at the future and thinking optimistically about their young generation. And I thought like that was really interesting for me because I thought harass is so rich in terms of their luxury sort of like brand and their style but I still wanted to keep an element of that youthfulness I felt like was really relevant and how did I do that well I thought first of all I wanted to make sure that the casting was just 10 out of 10.

11:20 I wanted the people that were part of my community that I respected that I loved and that were doing amazing things. And so I'll just give you a breakdown of who those people are there's a kaiazai jamal is a poet and they are just amazing amazing poet an activist what they do at the moment is just they're just championing championing and representing new versions of just creativity and they're just being really on it what they do it's amazing control is a musician an artist makes amazing kind of like soundscape instrumentals and like yeah really cool and priya ragu is a singer and yeah.

11:59 I just wanted people that were diverse and represented london because I feel like although harrods is so london it reminds me of like I've only been harassed once but aries is seoul london in my view unless like all the other side of london. And I wanted to make sure that you know my the people that I know were represented on the other side and like there was a voice just show you a group of people sorry about the smiles I just I was feeling myself I'm not gonna lie on set this is me on set and it's a bunch of yeah as you can see it's quite diverse and it was it was different it was new I don't know if you know about filmmaking but you get a brief from the creative or the customer client or the agency and then from that brief you make a treatment and then they come back to you with loads of amendments sometimes and then you go back and forth and you. Basically lock your treatment and then you get awarded the actual film.

12:56 And then you produce it and you shoot it. So it was really important for me to actually make a film that just was quite diverse and I was like that's the one thing that I was like I need to I need to happen and I think they were really super supportive of that.

13:08 And I don't think that's actually something that they've done before. So it was a new way of actually directing a new kind of like future for like harrods and what they are without which is super important for me as I said like I really like the idea of like being able to capture poetry and have that visual approach within my films so the one thing I wanted to do instead of me kind of doing like making a poem and then getting someone to like write out to say I wanted to partner with kai to be able to make something which was like really important for them.

13:40 But then also very important for like the brands and what they they they like and you can hear from the film that. There was a whole h is for h which harris really loved and yeah.

13:52 I was kind of happy with that and as you can tell from the film and also from my previous work if you've seen it I like movement I love just the floaty sort of heavenly sort of feel that you get and I was I worked with a city cam with a city cam operator and he had that little thingamabob machine thing which is really good to just get around places and move and make it just look. So so heavenly which is like kind of my style and then I'll just tell you a little bit more about the day we shot in the night time when the doors were closed like basically locked and then we basically shot until like five a.m and it was a really long long day but it was it was great and everyone's super happy and I just wanted to kind of like close off by just telling you like although you can work with a brand and it can be super like commercial and it could feel corporate sometimes or cool like stuffy sometimes like you can also work for a brand where you collaborate and you make amazing work which represents not only london.

14:57 But the brand itself and I think it's important when you're thinking about like going into spaces that we need to be more mindful of like what we're trying to tell the stories we're trying to tell and how they impact and affect people. So instead of me trying to boast myself up I'll just give you little pictures of just today and how people just really enjoyed it. And I enjoyed it as you can probably tell and yeah and yeah that's me thank you very much take ♪