Screening of Eelyn Lee's acclaimed short film Creature of the Estuary, part of the Monster Trilogy.

Inspired by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein this series of moving image works explores the notion that we create our own monsters from fear. Through processes of improvisation and collaboration Eelyn Lee locates real and fictional characters in an unspecified time and place somewhere along the Thames Estuary to play out a response to the arrival of a stranger.

“All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.” - Leo Tolstoy

Taking the story premise, 'a stranger comes to town' each film reveals how a small estuarine community is thrown in to turmoil when a mysterious creature appears in the mud at low tide.

Eelyn was invited by Metal, an arts lab on the Thames Estuary, to further develop the work through a series of residencies at their base in Southend-on-Sea. From here Eelyn extended her collaboration to local residents and made the second iteration, Creature of the Estuary [22mins/2016] which was presented at Estuary 2016 at an outdoor screening at Coalhouse Fort.

Both films have been supported by Arts Council England and feature BAFTA-winning actress Anamaria Marinca.

To complete the trilogy Eelyn is currently developing a feature-length film for theatrical release.

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Afterwards, Focal Point Gallery welcome you for drinks from 5.30pm, followed by a performance lecture in the gallery at 7pm from Barry Sykes, as part of the Radical ESSEX programme. In this introductory talk to his current research, Sykes will attempt to trace a line from Essex’s Tolstoy Colonies, via the UK’s first naturist club in the 1920s, to the attitudes, allegiances and hobbies of present day commuter-belt suburbia.

More information can be found here.