Fish Story 2017
A search for the truth behind a fishy tale.
‘A simple, understated, unpretentious work of short-form nonfiction - and nothing less than a miracle of tender-hearted mirth. I adored this little film.’ National Post
SELECT FESTIVALS
My name is Charlie Shackleton. I am a nonfiction filmmaker living and working in London.
My first radio documentary This Land, produced with Eleanor McDowall, was recently broadcast on Radio 4, while my performance piece As Mine Exactly was re-staged in East London, following runs at the Barbican Centre and the Museum of the Moving Image. My new(ish) shorts Camera Test (King Cadbury) and Lateral are currently playing festivals.
I am working on two feature films: in post-production with Field of Vision, and in development with the BFI.
Over the last decade, I made the experimental feature The Afterlight, the short films Lasting Marks, Fish Story, Personal Truth and Copycat, as well as the TV special Missing Episode, one part of the VR anthology A Machine for Viewing and the protest film Paint Drying.
Before that, I made two feature-length essay films: Beyond Clueless and Fear Itself.
I regularly work with Catherine Bray and Anthony Ing through our production company LOOP and have worked with Ross Sutherland on several projects including Stand By For Tape Back-Up. I was a creative consultant on Kitty Green's The Assistant.
Over the years I've also made several video essays including Pasta as Prologue, Histoire(s) du TikTok and Frames and Containers. I have curated film seasons including Cinema Obstructed, a collaboration with Rob Hughes at the Australian Cinémathèque. I used to write a weekly column for The Guardian, occasional criticism for Sight & Sound, and—way back in the mists of time—a movie blog called Ultra Culture.
Fish Story 2017
A search for the truth behind a fishy tale.
‘A simple, understated, unpretentious work of short-form nonfiction - and nothing less than a miracle of tender-hearted mirth. I adored this little film.’ National Post
Beyond Clueless 2014
A dizzying journey into the mind, body and soul of the teen movie, as seen through the eyes of over 200 modern coming-of-age classics.
‘Vibrant, funny and subversive... Interpretative analysis at its most engaging and evocative...’ Dazed & Confused
‘Beyond Clueless deconstructs cliques, party scenes and devirginations, while also serving as an irresistible guide to the best (and worst-best) teen movies ever.’ New York Magazine
Fear Itself 2015
A personal journey through fear and cinema that asks whether horror movies know us better than we know ourselves.
‘Beautiful... not just an homage to the genre but a horror film itself, plunging the viewer into the well of anxieties that is cinephilia.’ Cahiers du Cinéma
First broadcast on BBC iPlayer, 18 October 2015.
Missing Episode 2017
20 years ago, Ross Sutherland was watching EastEnders with his parents when there was a knock at the door. He never saw the end of that episode.
‘A dazzling sung-through monologue ... a bravura feat of choreography and music, staggeringly complex and almost unaccountably beautiful.’ Village Voice
‘This is fantastic... a powerful, dreamlike audio-visual poem on the subject of memory, nostalgia and loss.’ The Times
First broadcast on BBC Two, 7 October 2017.
As Mine Exactly 2022
A mother and son revisit the medical emergency that reshaped their lives, and the remarkable fragments that remain of that time, in this intimate blend of VR and performance film.
‘Profoundly moving ... Shackleton creates a space of transparency and invites the viewer to experience a new form of intimacy’ Little White Lies
As Mine Exactly has been performed more than 400 times at venues including the Barbican Centre, London; the Museum of the Moving Image, New York; and the Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen.
Personal Truth 2017
In December 2016, an armed man stormed a Washington D.C. pizza parlour in search of a non-existent child sex ring he'd read about online. What can his story teach us about knowledge, belief and the stories we choose to put our faith in?
‘A miraculous examination of how 'fake news' and conspiracy theories emerge—and why they linger in the imagination.’ Stranger Than Fiction
A Machine for Viewing 2019
A live performance and VR experience exploring the relationship between cinema and virtual reality. I created one of the three episodes, alongside Richard Misek and Oscar Raby.
‘The unexpected participatory results were affecting, and seeing it unfold in real time gave the performance a palpable sense of excitement and import.’ Abby Sun, Filmmaker Magazine
Lateral 2023
Cinema history is scoured for hidden depths in this improvised experiment in perception, presented in stereoscopic 3D.
‘Lateral is film history and film criticism, but it's also a reminder that the most vital element of the cinematic apparatus is the quality humans add by witnessing the image’ The Brooklyn Rail
Screened with previews of Wim Wenders' Anselm at Curzon Mayfair.
Paint Drying 2016
A crowd-funded, ten-hour unbroken shot of white paint drying on a brick wall, watched in its entirety by the UK's film censor board.
‘British filmmaker Charlie Lyne made a 607-minute movie of white paint drying on a wall, and over the course of two days, the British Board of Film Classification had to watch every second of it.’ Washington Post