In Make Me Up, multimedia artist Rachel Maclean has created a world that is both seductive and dangerous; a place where surveillance, violence and submission are a normalised part of daily life. She tackles these contradictions head-on and never balks at pushing boundaries.
This darkly-comic film takes a satirical look at the contradictory pressures faced by women today. It examines how television and social media can be fun and expressive spaces to explore identity, but simultaneously a gilded prison that encourages women to conform to strict beauty ideals.
Siri wakes to find herself trapped inside a brutalist candy-coloured dreamhouse. Despite the cutesy decor, the place is far from benign, and she and her inmates are encouraged to compete for survival while being watched over by surveillance cameras, 24/7.
Presiding over the group is an authoritarian diva who speaks entirely with the voice of Kenneth Clark from the 1960s BBC series Civilisation. As she forces the women to go head-to-head in a series of demeaning tasks, Siri, with the help of fellow inmate Alexa, starts subverting the rules and soon reveals the sinister truth that underpins their world.
Make Me Up will receive its world premiere in London on 12 October as part of the BFI London Film Festival and will be screened in cinemas and arts centres throughout autumn 2018. Make Me Up will be broadcast on BBC 4 in November 2018 (date tbc).
Produced by Hopscotch Films with NVA, Make Me Up is a major commission for the BBC, Creative Scotland and 14-18 NOW: WW1 Centenary Art Commissions, supported by Jerwood Charitable Foundation, the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund, and by the Department of Digital, Culture Media and Sport. Make Me Up is part of Represent, a series of works inspired by the Representation of the Peoples Act 1918.
Written, Designed, Edited and Directed by Rachel Maclean
Starring Rachel Maclean, Christina Gordon, Colette Dalal Tchantcho
Music Scott Twynholm
Director of Photography David Liddell
VFX Supervisor Jason Hillier
Line Producer Carolynne Sinclair Kidd
Executive Producers Sud Basu, Mark Bell, Clara Glynn, David Harron, Mark Thomas, Jenny Waldman
Producers John Archer, Angus Farqhuar
View screening dates and locations here.
BBC Broadcast
Make Me Up will be broadcast on BBC 4 in November. Date tbc.
Cinema Screenings
Fri 12 Oct |
London Film Festival World Premiere - BFi Southbank NFT1* book tickets |
Sun 14 Oct |
London Film Festival BFi Southbank NFT Studio book tickets |
Sun 14 Oct |
Glasgow Film Theatre* book tickets |
Tue 16 Oct |
Edinburgh Filmhouse* book tickets |
Thu 18 Oct |
Stornoway, An Lanntair book tickets |
Thu 18 Oct |
Cardiff, Chapter Arts Centre* book tickets |
Fri 19 Oct |
North Uist, Taigh Chearsabhagh book tickets |
Mon 22 Oct |
Belfast, Queen’s Film Theatre* book tickets |
Mon 22 Oct |
Dundee Contemporary Arts book tickets |
Tue 23 Oct |
Newcastle, Tyneside Cinema* book tickets |
Tue 23 Oct |
Leeds, Hyde Park Picture House book tickets |
Thu 25 Oct |
Bristol, Watershed* book tickets |
Wed 31 Oct |
Banchory, The Barn book tickets |
Fri 9 Nov |
London, ICA book tickets |
Sat 10 Nov |
London, ICA book tickets |
Sun 11 Nov |
London, ICA book tickets |
Tue 13 Nov |
London, ICA book tickets |
Fri 30 Nov |
Manchester HOME* book tickets |
* Includes post screening Q+A with Rachel Maclean
Exhibitions
20 Sep - 16 Dec |
Zabludowicz Collection: Featuring the exclusive gallery edition and installation of Make Me Up more info |
30 Oct 2018
We're excited to announce that Make Me Up will be broadcast on BBC Four as part of Arena, the channel's multi award-winning arts strand, on Sunday 4 November at 10pm. After it's broadcast it can be viewed on BBC iPlayer here. Enjoy!
21 Sep 2018
"2018 is an exciting moment for women’s rights. It’s 100 years since women got the vote and with the rise of the #MeToo movement and similar activism it seems that feminism is back with a powerful new lease of life. Simultaneously however, there has been a visible backlash against these developments, as well as a complicated entanglement of radical politics into consumerism, where feminism risks becoming a market, an image you buy into rather than a political force. Make Me Up is an exploration of both the achievements and the complications of contemporary feminism, and sets out a discussion of how women’s bodies, voices and minds contend with a world that all too often prefers you to be slim, silent and subservient." Rachel Maclean
Make Me Up was co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW, a major cultural programme taking place across the United Kingdom to mark the centenary of the First World War. Rachel's new work also forms part of Represent, a series of artworks inspired by the Representation of the People Act 1918. Rachel is one of three artists that have been selected for Represent alongside Debris Stevenson (working with Royal Court) and Selina Thompson (working with Arnolfini). Check out this great video featuring all three artists here. Represent is supported by Jerwood Charitable Foundation.
12 Sep 2018
We're very excited to announce that Make Me Up will receive its Southern Hemisphere premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival on Sunday 14 October.
Adelaide Film Festival is Australia’s premier film event, launching new films, art and interactive projects to both national and international audiences. We're thrilled to be able to share Make Me Up with Australian audiences - visit www.adelaidefilmfestival.org to book tickets.
28 Aug 2018
Make Me Up is the first long film I’ve made working with actors on screen, which has been fantastic. I am so privileged to have worked with such an amazingly talented cast! I am also so excited to have had the opportunity to make a film for BBC4 and work with the BBC archive. So many of my influences and inspiration come from television and amazing commissions on BBC.
The film samples dialogue from Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation, which was fascinating to revisit. I grew up watching seminal BBC Arts documentaries including Civilisation, as well as Shock of The New and Ways of Seeing, which were hugely influential in my desire to become an artist. The process of making the film has allowed me personally to reinvestigate my relationship to Kenneth Clark’s reading of art history and in particular how strikingly present women are in images and sculptures, yet how absent they are as voices or agents in art production.
I’m so thrilled that Make Me Up will receive its world premiere at the London Film Festival and look forward to traveling with the film and talking to audiences as we screen it across the country.
Rachel Maclean, August 2018
Rachel Maclean
Twitter: @Maclean_Rachel
Website: www.rachelmaclean.com
Matthew Bates - Sayle Screen Ltd
Email: matthew@saylescreen.com
Phone: +44 (0) 207 823 3883
Hopscotch Films
Carolynne Sinclair Kidd
Email: csk@hopscotchfilms.co.uk
Phone: +44 (0)7899 877524
Distribution - Cosmic Cat Ltd
Ged Fitzsimmons
Email: ged@cosmiccatfilm.com
Phone: +44 (0)7403 397965
Media enquiries - The Corner Shop
Susie Gray
Email: susie@thecornershoppr.com
Phone: +44 (0)7834 073795
Marketing enquiries
Derek J. Gilchrist
Email: derek@derekgilchrist.co.uk
Phone: +44 (0)7460 030258