Behind The Scenes Photos Unveiled For James Daniel’s FORGET ME NOT Featuring Tatjana Anders Ahead Of Its Festival Run

A vitriolic and lonely Ryan reaches out to a wealthy artistic friend, who unintentionally reconnects him with his sophisticated closeted ex-boyfriend.

The Fan Carpet are excited to present FORGET ME NOT the latest film from filmmaker James Daniel, featuring friend of The Fan Carpet Tatjana Anders, ahead of its long awaited Festival run!

SYNOPSIS:

Forget Me Not is centred around the recuperating friendship between a reckless adult, an artist, and a closeted homosexual. The film is set in the Kingston area and focuses on the different approaches to sexuality and how they influence and effect the psyche of the individual.

Ryan is begrudgingly kicked out of his friend’s apartment and is forced to reach out to Jenna, a housemate from university who he left under turbulent circumstances. Jenna is a small-time photographer with wealthy but absent parents who have left her a small fortune so she can independently pursue her career. She allows Ryan to stay at hers and in doing so is reunited with George, Jenna’s agent. The trio met at university, but Jenna is unaware of their secret homosexual relationship, and George still has not found the courage to tell her about his sexuality.

MAIN CAST:

Ryan Russo – Nikolas Balfe

Jenna Houston – Tatjana Anders

George Matthews – Adam Dando

Nikolas first started working as an actor when he moved to Brighton in 2012, after growing up and learning his craft in London. Working intimately with the Brighton Little Theatre and other local theatre companies, Nikolas performed in several different plays and built a résumé of diverse roles.

He has performed in venues across the south coast, most notably the Minack Theatre in Cornwall. In the last two years he has turned his full attention to screen acting and has been working with filmmakers both in and around Brighton and London. Forget Me Not has been his favourite project so far.

Tatjana is a multi-lingual actress, writer and producer. She speaks fluently English, German, Russian, French and Spanish. Tatjana has appeared in various short films, commercials, music videos and feature films such as The Children Act opposite Emma Thompson. She has also recently written and produced a multi award-winning short film on the topic of gaslighting, called Your Reality, which is currently being turned into a feature film.

Adam is a recent graduate in Musical Theatre from Solent University. He started life in the arts at age 11, where he performed in a small-scale musical in his home county of Dorset. As his love for acting grew, he performed in productions of Into the Woods, Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables.

Recently, he has played the roles of Munkustrap in Cats and Clifford Bradshaw in Cabaret amongst others, while being involved in a multitude of short films. Adam found Forget Me Not to be a striking piece and has loved working with the incredible team.

"During the writing process, we decided to reinterpret the perception of homosexuality. We wanted to examine an aspect of sexuality, as various films have already elegantly depicted the gracefulness of a homosexual romance story. I thought an analysis of the couple’s approach to their sexuality and how it defines their identity would be a more intriguing and unique story. I think this gives more weight to how their relationship develops and better integrates Jenna’s heterosexual understanding, particularly in how the audience can interpret the final scenes.

It was important to us that sexuality is normalised in the film. I have great respect for filmmakers who chose to tell these types of stories, but the next step I feel needs to be taken is that homosexual relationships become a seamless part of our culture. Sexuality should not be a character trait and we need a de facto change in our society to ensure films do not make this mistake. This is why I would argue that friendship is of bigger thematic relevance to our film, as it is something each character has to work on.

I want the audience to understand that personality flaws are a fundamental part of being human and that acknowledging your flaws is the best way to recuperate from them. We hope that the individuality of each character means that everybody will be able to personally connect with at least one of them. Our intention was to create nuanced characters and place them extravagant environments, as there is an intangible magic in this juxtaposition of filmmaking style.

The stylistic elements were brought to life by my fellow collaborators at Fuming Films, who I am in the process of creating my next film with – a modern Greek tragedy about a trio of nescient city folk who experience supernatural phenomena after venturing into a mystical forest to search for a missing friend. You can keep up to date with my work through my website and my Instagram account." said Writer/Director James Daniel.

DETAILS:

Director/Writer/Producer: JAMES DANIEL

First Film: NO

Multicultural Crew: YES

Young Filmmaker: YES (20)

Film Details: UK

Date of completion: June 2020

Genre: Short Film, Drama/Romance

Length: 19 Minutes