Is it Safe, 2017

 

A radio crackles between two public service announcements. They offer advice on home safety and outdoor summer safety. A young girl sits doodling on her kitchen floor, listening intently. Her imagination is sparked. The radio signals blur. Twisted warnings are conjured up in crayon fantasy. We fuzz across the boundary between mind and world as safety instructions become life threatening.

 

From an early age we are taught how to keep ourselves safe. Don’t talk to strangers, look both ways, wait for me here, don’t move. Safety might be a natural priority, but perhaps we are just blindly following orders. Is It Safe explores the inherent ambiguity and latent danger of institutionalised personal safety. A nocturnal scholar of horror cinema, Hollis approaches her subject through the potentially malign mind of a lonely girl to remind us that reality is up for grabs.

 

Is it Safe was featured in the 2018 London Short Film Festival under the category New Shorts: Leftfield and Luscious