MY BLONDE GF
DOCUMENTARY SHORT / 19 MIN / ENGLISH
DIRECTOR: ROSIE MORRIS
PRODUCERS: REBECCA MARK-LAWSON, DARIA NITSCHE & CLAIR MALENEY
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of online abuse you can find help here:
https://revengepornhelpline.org.uk, https://uksaysnomore.org
Developed with the support of:
Berlinale Talents Short Form Station 2022
Made with the support of:
LOGLINE
Helen discovers that deepfake images of her in sexually explicit and violent scenarios have been uploaded onto a porn site and goes on a journey to understand what has happened to her.
SYNOPSIS
In November 2020, an acquaintance knocked on Helen’s door to tell her he had seen explicit photos of her on a porn site. Helen had never shared intimate photos, so she didn’t believe it, until she saw for herself. She had been deep-faked. Her face had been digitally edited onto images of women in sexually explicit and violent scenes. Helen stares into the viewer’s eyes as she describes the deepfakes which appear to be of herself, but depict her face on other women’s bodies in rooms she has never entered and scenarios she has never experienced.
Helen felt violated and paranoid. She called the police to report the crime, but they told her there was nothing they could do, no crime had been committed. It is not illegal to make deepfake images. Helen’s mental health deteriorated as she began to live out these scenes through nightmares. The fictious images took on a life of their own, altering her own memories and perception.
To regain control, Helen chose to speak out about her experiences. As she confronts her unresolved feelings about who created these images and why, Helen challenges the culture that treats women’s appearance and image as public property while the perpetrators remain anonymous. She no longer carries the constant fear and anxiety, but the experience has changed her forever.
Helen is one of many women who have shared their experience with this increasingly common form of image-based sexual abuse. She and others are part of a campaign calling for real and meaningful online safety protections for women and girls and for changes to the law and conversation around deepfakes and image-based abuse.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
I have an ongoing preoccupation with exploring female identity onscreen. MY BLONDE GF is a continuation of my concern with how life online can infiltrate our private worlds and pose a threat to empathy, and to our understanding of the truth. I developed a strong relationship with Helen and delicately dug into the impact of her experiences. These conversations informed my approach. I hope that the film will be a genuine journey of empowerment for Helen whilst raising awareness about this terrifying issue.
- Rosie Morris
TEAM
Helen Mort - Contributor
Helen is a poet based in Sheffield. Her collections Division Street[ and No Map Could Show Them are published by Chatto & Windus and her third, The Illustrated Woman is due in 2022.
She has also published a novel, Black Car Burning and a memoir, A Line Above The Sky. She’s a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and teaches at Manchester Metropolitan University. Website
Rosie Morris - Director
Rosie is a London based filmmaker. She invites audiences to walk alongside the people in her films, and to meet them at eye level. She prioritises intimacy and emotion and the relationships involved in making the film. She graduated from the Directing Documentary course at the National Film and Television School in February 2020. Her latest short film, My Blonde GF, was developed through the short form station at Berlinale Talents 2020 and subsequently commissioned by OKRE, the Guardian and BFI Doc Society through 16 Productions and award winning production company Tyke Films. My Blonde GF premiered at Krakow International Film Festival and Sheffield Doc Fest before launching online on the Guardian in October 2023. Her films have screened at festivals including Aesthetica Short Film Festival, FIPADOC International Documentary Film Festival, Underwire Film Festival, Bolton Film Festival, Folkestone Film Festival, Otherfield Film Festival and Women Over Fifty Film Festival. She was a finalist in the 16 Days and 16 Films competition 2020, with her short film Heart Eyes and a World and her graduation film Trees was nominated in the student documentary category at the 2021 International Documentary Awards (IDA) and was subsequently acquired by the global short film platform watchargo.com.
Rosie is currently in post-production on an Arts Council Funded short Close your Eyes to See and her first documentary feature film, This Moment and The Next, which was commissioned and funded by the University of Essex.
Rebecca Mark-Lawson - Producer
Rebecca runs BFI Vision Award winning Tyke Films, a Film, TV, and VR Production Company developing documentary and drama projects with original approaches to true stories, often exploring the intersection between both genres and providing a respectful and nurturing environment for underrepresented voices.
Her career began working extensively in production with the likes of Penny Woolcock and Ken Loach, followed by being appointed Development Executive for new talent at EM Media and Managing Executive at Lifesize Pictures before going on to produce and executive produce multiple award winning documentary and fiction films for Film4, Channel 4, BFI and BBC Films. Her most recent BIFA award winning feature POLY STYRENE: I AM A CLICHÉ receiving international acclaim and playing at over 50 festivals worldwide. IMDb
Daria Nitsche - Producer
Daria is a multi-award-winning, international Producer who has been involved in German, English, Italian, Spanish, American and Nigerian productions. She started her career working on programmes for Germany’s leading broadcaster ZDF, as well as global TV and cinema commercials.
Since moving to the UK she has worked on scripted films, documentaries, commercials and marketing films for companies such as Netflix and Channel 4 News. In 2019 she joined BFI Vision Award winning Tyke Films, where she produced BIFA winning and BAFTA Scotland nominated films, such as POLY STYRENE: I AM A CLICHÉ, featuring Oscar nominee Ruth Negga as the voice of Poly Styrene. The film played at top tier festivals such as SXSW, Rotterdam, HotDocs and CPH:DOX, sold out multiple screenings in the US and was chosen as The New York Times Critics Pick. She is also a British Independent Film Awards voter and BAFTA Connect member. IMDb
Clair Maleney - Producer
Clair is an award-winning filmmaker and emerging producer based in Sheffield. She produced, directed, and edited her first film LEGACIES in 2018, which screened at the RAI Film Festival at the Watershed in Bristol, won the Social Impact Awards at the Show for a Change Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Editing at the Monkey Bread Tree Festival. Whilst at Tyke Films, she was selected for a BFI funded Trainee Producer role on animated short PLUNGE. She is also co-producing Guardian and BFI short documentary My Blonde GF. Clair is supporting the development of young filmmakers’ skills through the BFI Academy. Independently, she has produced and assistant produced a number of short films and documentaries including LEGACIES 2019, RED MERCURY 2021, ANGEL OF THE NORTH 2022. In 2022, she was selected for Film in Mind’s Filmmaker Peer Support Group programme, funded by the BFI DocSociety Ripple Effect. Supervised by Rebecca Day, she is facilitating a monthly peer support group for fellow filmmakers.
Vera Simmonds - Editor
Vera began her career as an artist-filmmaker. She then spent several years working in television before completing a Masters in Editing at the National Film and Television School. Shorts she edited during this time were selected for festivals, including Cannes, Annecy, Sheffield Doc Fest and LSFF. 'The Bigger Picture' was nominated for an OSCAR, and won the 2015 BAFTA for Best Short Animation.
She has gone on to edit several independent feature documentaries; including 'Half Way' – which was nominated for Best Cinema Documentary at the 2017 Grierson Awards. She is a visiting tutor at UCL and the National Film and Television School.
Emma Langguth - Director of Photography
Emma Langguth is a cinematographer based in London. Drawn to visceral stories that explore our human complexities and the shared experiences that bring us together.
Since graduating from the National Film and Television School her work has been recognised with the BAFTA nominated ‘The Song of a Lost Boy’ as well as a nomination from the British Society of Cinematographer’s Short Film competition for her work on ‘Voce’. Her work has been screened at festivals internationally and continues to shoot for a variety of projects across Drama, Documentary and animation.
Raoul Brand - Sound Designer, Re-Recording Mixer
Raoul is an award-winning sound designer and re-recording mixer working across documentaries, indie features and TV. He studied sound design at the National Film and Television School where he graduated with a distinction in 2013.
Since then, he has worked on many highly acclaimed feature documentaries - such as the multi award winning films Poly Styrene: I am A Cliché, Almost Heaven and Irene’s Ghost. His mixing work on Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet was awarded with a BIFA for best sound in 2022. As a TV sound editor, he most recently worked on BBC dramas Sherwood, Happy Valley and the ITVX show Nolly. Website
Darryl O'Donovan - Composer
Darryl is a composer and music editor based in London. His scoring credits include the BAFTA-nominated and RTS-winning short animation musical THE SONG OF A LOST BOY, feature documentary UNTIL WE LIVE AGAIN as well as the award-winning drama JUST CHARLIE co-composed with Yann McCullough. He previously worked with Rosie Morris on her film HEART EYES AND A WORLD. As a music editor he has worked on many films and series including OUR UNIVERSE, TREASON and I USED TO BE FAMOUS for Netflix, BRASSIC for Sky and the upcoming RYE LANE for Fox Searchlight which premiered at Sundance. After getting a BA in screenwriting, he graduated from the National Film & Television School with an MA in film composition.
FUNDERS
BFI Doc Society Fund
The BFI Doc Society Fund was launched in 2018, as Doc Society became the BFI’s delegate partner for independent UK documentary filmmaking. To date, it has distributed over £5.3 million to UK independent documentary films, thanks to National Lottery funding. The Fund supports creative and hybrid feature documentaries with bold cultural and social ambitions, and short films by diverse, emerging voices from all over the UK.
In 2023 Doc Society was reaffirmed as the BFI’s delegate partner for another three years with a further £6m commitment.
The fund has supported 61 independent documentary features since 2018, including A Bunch of Amateurs, Nothing Compares, Fashioned Reimagined, Kanaval: A History of Haiti in Six Chapters, Rebellion, Nascondino Maya, African Apocalypse, Locked In, Bank Job, Men Who Sing, PolyStyrene: I Am A Cliché. The films have screened internationally and secured a number of award nominations, winning at The Grierson Awards, BIFAs, BAFTA, and RTS.
50 short films, including BAFTA, Grierson and Emmy award winners, have been funded through the BFI Doc Society Made of Truth fund, in partnership with BFI NETWORK. They have screened at international festivals including Sundance, London, IDFA, Sheffield, TIFF amongst others and been distributed and exhibited by Guardian Docs, Nat Geo, POV, Al Jazeera & the V&A.
The BFI Doc Society Fund supports and enables independent non-fiction film by British filmmakers, prioritising expansive, director-led storytelling. It also facilitates a dedicated support programme aimed at building connections with documentary filmmakers across all corners of the UK and provides professional development opportunities for grantee filmmakers.
Commissioned by Guardian Documentaries
Guardian Documentaries is an expression of the Guardian's core editorial purpose and ethos. We curate and commission independent film-makers from around the world and are committed to telling contemporary stories with unique artistic vision that have the power to provoke, surprise and engage us with the changing world we live in. Guardian documentaries have won critical acclaim, including an Oscar in 2021 for Colette and a 2022 BAFTA Film Award for The Black Cop. Guardian Documentaries play at film festivals around the world, garnering further recognition at festivals such as Cannes, Sheffield Doc/Fest, CPH Dox and IDFA.
