A mother itches herself, feeling a flea, before capturing it. The daughter feels shame when her mother presents the flea to her and rips it away. The mother wails uncontrollably.
Grief turns into fear as the father returns home. A food bank parcel is posted through the window: dinner is served.
The family assembles and eats: the son, sheltered from absurdity, is given bread. The father snaps open a can of ravioli like a can of beer and drinks it. The daughter eats a used tampon.
The mother chews on a single lettuce leaf and spits it out.
The daughter shows her father the flea from earlier. The sight of it sends him into a rage. The son slips away from this display as the daughter buries her head in a book. During a moment of heightened violence, the father looks directly into the camera, addressing the audience. The camera pulls away, revealing a film crew.
The women of the family start to cry.
On the TV, the news plays: a cat politician puppet talks gibberish. Hearing the puppet, the daughter is sent into a rage of her own, and she rips the pages from her books. She rolls around in these pages, escaping, just for a little while.
Her father doesn’t seem to care as she dons a cat mask and a backpack, intending to leave her family behind and climb the class ladder through education. Her brother waves as she leaves.
Her mother cries.
COUNTRY : UK YEAR : 2024 DURATION : 13m DIRECTOR / WRITER : Maria-Ella-May Hill PRODUCERS : Maria-Ella-May Hill, Phoebe Davis CONTACTS, LINKS : @mariamayportfolio@mmaria_hill
Director Statement : FLEAS was born after reading one too many ignorant statements from right wing politicians who never have, and never will, understand what it means to be working class. I wanted to capture these harmful class stereotypes such politicians swear by, and subsequently the self fulfilling prophecies that such feudal idiocy creates. The only way that felt natural to do this was through using surrealist, expressionist, and Brechtian techniques, highlighting the absurdity of living in a 21st century where an ex Prime Minister believes that blue-collar people are “drunk, criminal, aimless, feckless and hopeless”(Boris Johnson, 1995).
The working class are seen as fleas draining the life and money out of the British economy – and from the “hard working” middle and upper classes, who in this short film are depicted as cats. Yet the question of who the real fleas are is raised as the blue-collar family members look directly at the camera. addressing the audience who are actively consuming these class stereotypes. The line between reality and carnivalesque fantasy is blurred. Through exposing the film crew on camera during moments of tension, I wanted to draw attention to the artifice and puppetry at play.
FLEAS was the practical aspect of my undergraduate dissertation at Lancaster University, made with the support of my wonderful supervisor Doctor Maryam Ghorbankarimi, on a very small budget funded by friends and family. It was filmed in a few days and I’m so grateful to have been able to create something so personal with a talented team I love so dearly.
Bio : Maria-Ella-May Hill is a 23 year old writer, director and cinematographer from the East of England. Her old poetry teacher would describe her work as a “little too sad”, but she remains prioritizing art which sits in reflective discomfort. She is the recipient of the Lancaster Poet of the Year prize, has had poems and short stories published in various indie magazines, and has been nominated and awarded prizes for two of her previous short films. She’s currently studying a part-time masters in Creative Writing at The University of Cambridge and hoping one day to be financially stable enough to own a cat.
Pebbles Underground is focused on showcasing and promoting experimental, avant-garde, underground, and no-to-low budget projects by artist-humans from all over the world. Absurd, uncanny, witty, humorous, slow-video – all are welcomed, and loved.
Pebbles Underground is an independent project not funded by any government or corporation, and we intend to keep it that way. Main source of funding is personal donations from humans organizing the project, who are artists themselves, and the main drive of the project is formed by the energy and involvement of the organizers, and the public.
