A 16 year old boy from Hove, Elliot Hasler, has seen the premier of his debut film, Charlie’s Letters, premiered at Brighton Fringe. The film was shown for the first time last night (18th May), at a local Brighton venue – The Nightingale Room, above the Grand Central pub.
The feature length film is 90 minutes long and revolves around Elliot’s grandfather, Charlie Standing, who was captured in Tunisia during the second world war, and focuses on his journey to get home. Standing himself being from Brighton, awaited a wife and child back home.
Charlie’s Letters will make Hasler the youngest feature film director at Fringe, after starting to create films at the tender age of 10 years old in his local primary school in Hove. It is said that it took three years in order to finish the film, and Elliot used ancestry sites as well as war records in order to research his work. According to Brighton Fringe, it was “meticulously researched and undergoing production for almost three years, across five countries, with key scenes filmed in and around Brighton”. That means that Elliot started making this film at merely thirteen years of age, which is impressive to say the least. Elliot claims he was simply “captivated” by his grandfathers stories as a prisoner of war and thought “it would make a brilliant film”. Unfortunately, Elliot’s grandfather died prior to his birth, but he believes that “the film does him justice”.
Once Brighton Fringe has ended its run, Charlie’s Letters will go on to premiere at Edinburgh Fringe where, once again, he will be the youngest feature film director. After that, Elliot will be attending the Dieppe Film Festival, where he has been made a judge of honour.
Charlie’s Letters is available to view now at The Nightingale Room with showings at 11.30am, 2.30pm, 6pm this Sunday (21 May), 7.30pm on Tuesday (23 May) and 4.30pm and 7.30pm next Tuesday (30 May). Tickets £5.
