Meet the Beacons Makers: Samantha O’Rourke

Samantha O’Rourke’s offbeat comedy Jelly follows a bored and world-weary woman down a path to an underground escape filled with jelly, hope and the girl of her dreams.

Before the film’s broadcast, we spoke to Samantha about shooting in a north Wales cave, getting mentorship through a BFI & BAFTA programme, and what the future holds in store for her.

Hi Samantha, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I’m originally from the North West of England, then moved to north Wales a few years ago now. I came to filmmaking via lots of retail, supply teaching, sandwich making and any and all theatre jobs! My work focuses on finding darkly comedic, daft, unexpected ways into difficult topics.

Where did the inspiration for Jelly come from?
The film is basically my reaction to feeling overwhelmed with the state of everything. It’s a really brutal time to be young, everything lurching to the right, your choices getting narrower, and you end up feeling more and more disenfranchised every day. And really this sensation can be especially applied to Wales as a whole, never voting Tory but still ruled by them via London. So, Jelly is really about following through with the idea of ‘what if I just ran away and left all this behind?’ to a whimsical, deeply impractical and ultimately hopeful extreme. 

I’ve also always been really fascinated with all things caves and secret tunnels, I think it comes from reading adventure books as a kid and has obviously really stuck with me since it is still popping up in my work now! 

What was it like to shoot your film in north Wales?
It was a proper joy. Wales is obviously very popular for filming - but a lot of that is in south Wales so I was really excited to be able to film everything just a few minutes down the road. All the actors and supporting artists are local to north Wales and it felt really lovely to make something here. When you live a bit rurally (as I always have) something like filmmaking can feel like a world away so it’s very exciting. 

What kind of support did Ffilm Cymru & BFI NETWORK give you?
So much support! There are two main strands really - the practical support of actually getting a short made, so whether it was financial, industry contacts, script notes, locations - the list goes on. They were always there to hop on the phone, fire back an email and help problem solve anything that came up. 

Secondly the biggest impact Beacons had for me on a personal level, was being trusted to bring those skills I’d developed in other creative practise and apply them to film making. It was a really significant turning point for me. I have always been completely obsessed with film and TV but I had absolutely no idea how you get into it, honestly it felt a million miles away but Ffilm Cymru were so accessible. I had reached out to sort of awkwardly say ‘hello I’m Sam I like film’ and got immediate engagement and encouragement. 

Congratulations on being selected for the BFI Flare x BAFTA Mentoring programme for emerging LGBTQIA+ filmmakers! How has that helped your career to develop so far?
Thank you! It’s such a lovely thing to be part of. There’s a small group of us all at similar career stages, so being able to learn from each other and support each other is really brilliant. Part of the scheme was getting to attend BFI Flare Festival, this was my first big film festival and we got to meet a lot of industry experts and other queer artists. It really helped to feel connected and just to get to immerse myself in the inspiring, diverse work everyone was making. Mentoring should be starting in the next few months; I am very excited to be able to pick the brain of someone who has already achieved so many of the things I hope to do so watch this space! 

What do you have planned next?
More screen and more theatre! I was part of last year’s 4stories for Channel 4, writing an episode called Mincemeat, so that and Jelly have opened a lot of doors for me. I’ve just completed a spooky, northern, queer series treatment for Channel 4 and am developing my first feature supported by Ffilm Cymru. I’m also part of this year’s BBC Welsh Voices, which has been really useful to hear from lots of brilliant screenwriters and develop a series idea with the support of the Voices team.