more offbeat elements into the film. One thread sees a group of law students take on characters within a fictionalised version of upcoming or unconfirmed hearings on the case. Closer to drama school than law academia, the players workshop eventualities and play roles not their own.

Solidarity trailer

This feeds outwards into the events of the film as Parker engages workers and union activists in their own plays, including a mock public enquiry to prepare campaigners for the stand. She suggests new ways to tackle big business, workshopping a better future into shape through collaboration and improvisation. It allows a group of individuals grasping in the dark to feel around together for a new direction and unify into a coherent resistance.

This is taken further in Lanre Malaolu’s short film Thealone could.





Chris Penty uses an essay-like form to similar effect as his short Canal deals with both mental health and the country’s dying industries as he traces his old commute along the mostly derelict Grand Union Canal in London. His sullen voice relates images of litter and abandoned buildings on his route to incidents in his life and the feelings of depression and anxiety that afflicted his life at the time, favouring mood over narrative in its bid to evoke empathy.

In her short Disconnected, Alice Aedy follows a similar bricolage-style strategy in her efforts to portray today’s social media landscape as a ‘sci-fi dystopia’. Phoneline confessions from isolated and confused young people are intercut with dramatised depictions of their words drenched in moody neon light and deep black