London Film School student Christopher Manning's short film Jamie has won the Alternative Spirit Award at Flicker's Rhode Island International Film Festival over the weekend. Eight LFS films played at the Festival, with current students, new graduates and alumni in the lineup. The Festival's goal is to recognize achievement and innovation in a variety of filmmaking and storytelling disciplines while providing an opportunity to secure wider distribution. The Festival also actively supports and encourages film preservation and its restoration, thus ensuring future generations of this unique artistic medium.
JAIME tells the story of Jamie, a quiet loner in his early twenties, who is clumsily looking for his first relationship. Shy and lacking self-confidence, his past experiences with men have yielded disappointing results. One Sunday, he meets Ben. As they spend the afternoon together, Jamie begins to wonder if he has finally met his match.
Christopher is a writer and director of narrative fiction. He travelled and worked a variety of jobs in Europe and America before earning a BA from Columbia University in the City of New York, where he studied History and Film. He has worked as a Script Reader, Production Coordinator and Assistant Director on various fiction and documentary films as well as for television. In 2015, he participated in the Cinephile Scholarship Program at the Telluride Film Festival. He is currently a student at LFS on the MA Filmmaking course.
You can read interviews with Christopher about his short, and the award here:
Interview published during RIFF.
Interview published after the film's premiere at Sicilia Queer Film Festival in June.