'The Girl From the Beach' a master's short film

Kia Ora! My name is Felix Hannah, and I am a master's student in screen production at the University of Auckland, currently working on my thesis short film.

About the film

I’m writing, directing and co-producing The Girl from the Beach, a short drama about gender, sex and class. It follows Isabella, a down-on-her-luck young woman who hustles an older man, Marc, for money. Over the course of their evening, the pair dig deep into each other, revealing the desires and fears that led them to this very moment. When Marc’s wife returns home, these tensions erupt.

Genre and Inspirations

It’s a contemporary drama heavily indebted to the stylings of the French New Wave. I have loved these films for a long time, and I wanted to make something that revisited those ideas and aesthetics in a contemporary setting, one that felt immediate and significant to young people like me.

The film will be 15 minutes long, and I have already assembled a team of very exciting collaborators to help bring it to life.

I wanted, with this film, to make something that pushed the boundaries of typical student short filmmaking, challenged me as a writer and director, and spoke to an essential truth about being a young artist in the modern world.

I've attached the short film I wrote and directed last year, 'take me dancing', to give you an idea of what my collaborators and I are capable of. It's a short drama that tackles a lot of the same themes as 'Girl from the Beach'.