We caught up with Elinor Randle, the director of Betty and Jean, a short film funded by LCR Pride Foundation and nominated for the Iris Prize Best British Short.
A moving story about 80-year-old Betty, who waits for her true love, Jean. She recalls their painful break-up in 1960’s Liverpool before she could be herself.
What inspired the story of Betty and Jean?
I’d been thinking for a while about how I wasn’t seeing many stories about older women, and hardly any about older gay women, how growing up, I didn’t have any role models who were gay older women. Also getting older myself brings that closer to home. I started thinking about this particular story between two older women and about about people in the past who couldn’t disclose who they were, the idea of lost love.
There has been such a positive reaction to the film. How has that been for you?
Yeah, it’s really special. It’s very overwhelming to have the first film I’ve written and directed on Channel Four, I didn’t expect that. It was so inspiring to be at the Iris Prize Festival because, even though I felt like a total imposter, to be around so many gay people and films and filmmakers was incredible. The success of it has been brilliant for me, you know, the Iris Prize Festival is fantastic. And then it’s been shown in Canada and India.
You touched upon this previously, but why is it important to tell the stories of older gay women?
I think it’s really important to see everybody represented, and these are people I just don’t see. As you get older, you start thinking more about what is the future, especially as a gay woman without children.
What were some of the challenging aspects of filming Betty and Jean and how did you overcome them?
I was really lucky, because I hadn’t written a film script before, to have a lot of support in editing from Lynne Harwood at First Take, who’s also a gay woman. She was brilliant. So I learned loads in that process. The most challenging part was filming outside with older people and not much money. It was in April, but it was freezing and it was just so dramatic. I suppose what was challenging for me – and still is actually – is in theatre, you keep on refining something, so it’s so hard for me to go, “that’s it.” In editing you can do so much but obviously there’s always things you would change if you could do it again.
More about yourself, how did you get into film?
I suppose through theatre. I’ve worked in theatre for 20 years. As most people did during lockdown, if you make theatre, then you start making films. I had this project called Lone Women where I commissioned five female writers just to write a short piece and then make films, which was a really interesting process, and I thought I’d like to learn more about this. I suppose as well, it’s really exciting for me to have a different medium because it’s a new way of telling stories that is completely different.
Head to irisprize.org for more information on the Iris Prize Festival.
