Since its non-theatrical release on YouTube in late February 2021, the film has received enormous audience acclaim and subsequently been an official selection in 18 international independent film festivals:
Toronto Women Films Festival 2021 and 2022, Impact Docs Festival (Los Angeles), LGBTQ Unbordered International Film Festival Summer 2021, Docs Without Borders Film Festival 2021, Accolade Global Film Competition, Hastings Rocks International Film Festival, The Kings Cross Film Festival, IndieFest Film Awards, Brighton Rocks International Film Festival, London Lift-Off 2021, Depth of Field International Festival, London Rocks International Film Festival, FlickFair 2021, LFest 2022, Hollywood’s First-Time Film-maker Showcase, WRPN Women’s International Film Festival and SafFlicks 2023.
It won twelve awards, including three for ‘Best Documentary Feature’ and one for ‘Best Narration/Voiceover’
Longlisted For the National Digital Culture Awards 2023, in the ‘Content Creator’ Category
By May 2022 – less than a year since its release, it had won 12 awards, including three for ‘Best Documentary Feature’ and one for ‘Best Narration/Voiceover’
The Boy and The Bear was voted Best Feature Documentary by the Brighton Rocks International Film Festival 2021 jury, which received hundreds of submissions from film-makers around the world.
Dr James Rowlins, director of BRIFF, said, ‘We were deeply moved by your film and are very excited to include it in this year’s programme. The Boy & The Bear is such a moving and important work, so beautifully narrated.’
The Brighton Rocks International Film Festival took place at the Rialto Theatre, Brighton 23-25 July. The Boy and The Bear was screened on Sunday 25 July, followed by an in-person Q&A with Rose Collis.
It was voted joint Best Feature Documentary by the London Rocks International Film Festival 2021 jury.
The film was voted Best LGBT+ Film by the Hastings Rocks International Film Festival 2022 jury.
The Boy and The Bear has been voted Best Documentary Feature in its August 2021 competion by the Kings Cross Film Festival and has been nominated for Best Documentary Feature in its annual awards ceremony on 25 Aug 2022 at The Water Rats Theatre, London.
It was given an ‘Award of Recognition’by The Accolade Global Film Competition.
The film was the winner of two ‘Awards of Recognition’ in the 2021 IndieFEST Film Awards: LGBTQ+ and Narration/Voice Over.
The film was the winner of an ‘Award of Recognition’ by the prestigious Impact DOCS global online competition, who said ‘This exceptional group of filmmakers hailed from all corners of the globe and delivered docs that were educational, enlivening and truly potent. The judges were impressed with the scope and skill of these filmmakers!’
The film has also won an Exceptional Merit award by the LGBTQ Unbordered International Film Festival jury.
The film has also won two ‘Merit’ awards from the WRPN Women’s International Film Festival and The Depth of Field International Film Festival 2021
In January 2020, I was delighted to receive an Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grant to research and develop my new solo stage show, Forty Years Out (And Counting): Performing The Archive. It would be ‘flagging up the lesbian history’, combining acapella songs, humour, archive materials and first-hand testimony.
The show, and associated public engagement events, would be based on my experiences of being an out and proud lesbian writer, performer and activist for over four decades and on my extensive archive dating back to 1978, featuring cuttings, photos, artefacts, ephemera, film footage and audio recordings.
It all began so well: the project officially began with three ‘taster’ events for the Outing the Past Festival 2020: at Higgins Bedford MuseumBirmingham Museum and Art Gallery and Jubilee Library Brighton. The events consisted of a 20-minute ‘taster’ of what might be included in the show, comprising stories, images and acapella songs, followed by a Q&A. They were extremely well attended and enthusiastically received by audiences and organisers alike, and gave me clear indications and ideas on how to develop the show.
I began to go through my source material to identify areas/themes for inclusions, and text extracts from my own written work. One of these sources were my diaries dating from 1975 onwards. I had been dreading going back over them but, in fact, I found I could re-visit them with surprising objectivity and fascination.
And then, cometh Covid-19…
Since I know a number of people who work in local government and the NHS, I was receiving early information about how the situation was likely to pan out, and correctly anticipated that my programme of events was likely to be postponed for some considerable time. And so it transpired…
I received the following helpful guidelines from ACE: ‘We will not be asking individuals or organisations to pay back awarded funding, if they have had to cancel or change plans due to Covid-19.’
‘Change plans’ was putting it mildly: I drew up, and then tore up, about eight different alternative plans as lockdown rules and guidelines came and went — and then came back again. I was allowed to re-purpose some of my funding to buy relevant equipment. So — for less than £500 in total — I bought a complete podcast/audio recording equipment kit; a Canon professional quality digital video camera kit; a digital projector, stand and tripod project screen, and downloaded the free Windows Movie Maker and VideoPad Editor video software, and Audacity professional audio recording software.
I immediately saw the potential of audio-visual digital pieces and originally envisaged doing a series of five-minute, ‘straight-to-PC-camera’ vlogs. But then I realised just as quickly how boring that would be for audiences — and for me. I figured that people might want something a little more interesting to watch or listen to — and I certainly wanted to work on something more challenging. After that, it kind of took on a life of its own.
Going through my diaries over several months was a startling and overdue reminder of the importance of my five-year friendship with Neil, from our first meeting at school in 1975 and then during some of the most crucial post-school years of our lives. I was truly amazed at how much time we had spent together during those years and pleased to be poignantly reminded of how much we had meant to each other. I realised that our personal and political journeys — similar and contrasting — chronicled in the diaries were unique insights into a decade of enormous social and political change.
The personal stories unwind against a social and political backdrop and context of early Gay Pride marches; police harassment; anti-fascist/anti-racist activism; ‘agit-prop’ gay and feminist theatre; the London lesbian and gay scene and media of the late 70s and early 80s; and the first decade of the AIDS crisis — all viewed through the lens of a veteran lesbian writer, performer and activist who participated, witnessed and chronicled these events.
The film includes personal testimony, letters, photographs, diaries, ephemera, news cuttings and others materials from my extensive archive curated over five decades – plus some of my original music.
It was really exciting to teach myself how to use all the new equipment and software, especially as it presents me with new opportunities to take my work to global audiences. And — I did it all here from my desk at home in Seaford. What’s not to like?!
Of course, I had to create my own ‘trial and error’ processes and methods, and I kept a diary of it all, which I posted on my Facebook page:
January 25: ‘spent half the afternoon a) doing a test partial-narration recording and b) running image sequence again, taking timings for each section for matching narration text. Tomorrow, I will run through each section of narration and time it, to see if they approximately match each section of images…had a ‘dress’ rehearsal of the narration. It all works.
January 26:Decided to record the film’s narration this evening, when the risk of any external noise will be at a minimum. Did it in less than two hours. Safely saved and was able to make cuts and re-takes as I went. There’s just a couple of harmless tiny tongue-trips, to prove that I am indeed human.
January 31:And… that’s a wrap!
Added the narration track to the images.
Added the music track to the images.
Watched/listened to entire film for any duration discrepancies between sound and vision. Job’s a good ‘un!
I hope what I’ve done inspires other, older women artists to be confident about embracing digital equipment and technology to create their work, and tell more women’s stories. We are 51.9% of the population — the majority, treated like a minority, and our histories are so often overlooked, hidden or forgotten.
And I’m already planning my next film projects — so watch this space!
This Q&A session was part of the OUTing the Past Festival programme at the Higgins Bedford Museum during LGBTQ+ History Month 2021:
Speaking about The Boy and The Bear to Mark Walker on The Vote, The Latest TV:
FEEDBACK FOR THE BOY AND THE BEAR:
Jenny Landreth, best-selling author: Rose, I just watched your film – what an amazing piece of work. Your story telling is superb, you pitch it so well, all your humour and sensitivity. And the tears just crept up on me. I’m so glad you made it, thank you.
Sue Louise Sanders, LGBT History Month/Outing the Past: Wonderful, thanks a million.
Mark Peters, Total TV Guide: People, watch this film. It really is a beautiful tribute to friendship and a time we’re in danger of forgetting. A wonderful, intelligent, piece of film-making. You did yourself and the whole of our community proud.
Kinny Gardner BEM, Krazy Kat Theatre: Excellent film. Engaging and surprising, with just the right edge of humour. Lovely to hear your ‘authentic’ voice, both literally and figuratively! Brava and kudos.
Robert Chevara, director:It’s fantastic and moving and truthful. It mirrors our time and lives brilliantly and is a history that’s a hair’s breadth from being misrepresented or forgotten. Bravo Rose.
Roz Hopkinson, Artistic Director, Stance Theatre Company:Wow, deeply moving, and beautifully presented Rose. Brilliant, engaging and deeply moving. Brava, Rose!
Allie Rogers, author: This is a beautiful piece of work. I heartily recommend. Take an hour out to watch this. Local playwright, performer, author, singer and musician, Rose Collis will tell you a story you don’t want to miss.
Maureen Hand: Thank you for The Boy and The Bear. I listened today. I was very moved by it. Brought back many memories. You truly captured our generation.
Alf Le Flohic: It’s a great piece of work, very moving. Well done and thank you for making it.
Duncan Gillies:It was great, Rose. Related to so much of the late 70s stuff. Thanks for caring.
Amanda Lines: Very important work Rose. Beautiful, moving and emotional.
Suzanne Egerton, author: Compelling, informative, skilfully presented, and very, very moving.
Melody Walker: This is the eighties I remember. Triumph and Tragedy. Thank you
Tony Reeves, author and artist: Brilliant and, as everybody else is saying, very, very affecting. Essential viewing for anyone with the slightest interest in gay or cultural or political history. First-hand accounts are vital in an age of shoddy journalism and Wikipedia-sourced nonsense. Treasure them.
Raine Pavey-Dorn: Utterly moving Rose, bringing forth so many memories of my own. Thank you for sharing something so personal and yet so wrapped up in our community history. Bravo.
Lynne Armstrong: Just finished watching. I’m very emotional. Well done Rose it was fabulous. A fitting tribute to your friend and all those victims of that terrible disease. Brought some good memories of rattling around those London venues too!
Robert Taylor: Thank you for spending these past months working on such a beautiful narrative of life–and of history lived.
Diana Mutimer: Beautiful writing and storytelling.
Going through my diaries over several months was a startling and overdue reminder of the importance of my five-year friendship with Neil, from our first meeting at school in 1975 and then during some of the most crucial post-school years of our lives. I was truly amazed at how much time we had spent together during those years and pleased to be poignantly reminded of how much we had meant to each other. I realised that our personal and political journeys — similar and contrasting — chronicled in the diaries were unique insights into a decade of enormous social and political change.
