Amira is in love with Billie. Billie barely knows who she is. That is, until Amira steals a lock of her hair.

Working as a salon assistant, Amira has to worry about her job and sorting out a weekly shop for her mum, but Billie doesn’t seem to have a care in the world. After she picks up a lock of Billie’s hair from the salon floor, Amira is tormented by static shocks, a strange light at her window, and weird noises in the night. Meanwhile, Billie begins to crave her friendship – has she cast a spell? Or is there something darker at work as the two girls slip off into the neon-tinted night?

PLUCK was filmed over four days in South East London and is currently in post-production. We are now crowdfunding towards completion costs, festival submissions, and reimbursal of production funds.

Ray Sims, writer & director

Ray is a writer and director from London. Her films have shown at SHORTIES and Nusca Festival in Venice. Her first short film ‘Lilly’, was made when she was 19 years old as part of the Stop Play Record filmmaking scheme supported by Channel 4’s Random Acts and the ICA. It was about a teenage vampire, so clearly things haven’t changed very much.

Sylvie Dumont, producer

Sylvie works as a film programmer and curator for London Short Film Festival, with a background in producing short documentaries and music videos. She met Ray at university after agreeing to paint some theatre backdrops together for a student production and is just as talented at film production as she is painting imitation brick walls.

Carolina Nunes, DOP

Carolina, our DOP and cinematographer, is a current student at the NFTS. Whilst working on Pluck she managed to shoot through two bouts of rain, a haze machine, and squeezing into a tiny flat – and still made it all look beautiful.

Ophelia Akande, costume designer

Ophelia is a costume designer from East London with a multifaceted background in Film and Television. After graduating with a bachelor's in Costume for Performance at the London College of Fashion, she has worked on various projects at the BBC, Warner Bros Studios, Netflix, and more. She originally met Ray on Stop Play Record, where they were both directing their own films, and they are very excited to have finally worked on a project together!

Jack Brown, production designer

Jack is an artist and production designer, who also makes 16mm films. Ray and Jack bonded during their MA over a love of Lynne Ramsay and have never looked back. Since graduation he has worked on a variety of narrative and commercial projects, and is accomplished at building sets from scratch.

Hannah Bowers-Broadbent (@hlivbb) as Amira

Samantha Allison (@samanthaallis0n) as Billie

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The film is executive produced by House on Fire Productions, a young production company founded by Producer Kate Shelley and Director Emily Macrander, focusing on production support for short format work. Having worked in the industry independently and together for several years, Kate and Emily’s works have been screened across the UK and have won numerous international awards.