I’m a South Shields director and I’m looking for North East people to star in my new film

Nathan Glendinning, from South Shields, has issued a casting call for people from across the North East to star in his upcoming short film, titled ‘The Bluebird’s Daughter’.

Over the last ten years, Nathan has worked in television and video advertisement, but has also expressed his desire to make short films about stories from where he is from.

One of his previous short films, titled ‘Nowt Like Home’, focused on celebrating the culture of South Shields by showcasing what the area has to offer.

Nathan has given the Shields Gazette an insight into what his upcoming film is about and where the inspiration for it came from.

He said: “A lot of the stories that I’ve told in my previous films are inspired by real people and my upbringing here in South Shields.

“I always try to tell stories that reflect the social environment of being brought up in the North East so in the past, I’ve focused on things like the shipyards and the coal mines.

“This film is about a little girl who is out looking for her dad who has been missing for a few days.

“I can’t tell you how that develops as I don’t want to ruin it but it is very much inspired by experiences from my own family and the film will really hone in on family dynamics across the region.

“We are going to shoot it in Byker as given how much South Tyneside has been redeveloped, there isn’t a lot of places that feel like you’re back in the late 90s and early 2000s, which is when the film is set.”

Nathan has stated that he wants a North East-based cast for ‘The Bluebird’s Daughter’ to keep the film very authentic to the North East and revealed that you don’t need previous acting experience to get involved.

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He added: “Because myself and my producer, Lauren Mosettig, are so passionate about telling authentic stories from the region, we know that it is our responsibility to showcase that on screen - that’s why we want to cast locally.

“It would be very easy to look at acting schools across the country to get a cast but to tell the story properly, we want it to be people from the North East.

“There is also a wealth of local talent and the North East already has a nice buzz about it so we are really keen to give these acting opportunities to some younger people who maybe don’t know that these opportunities exist.

“We’re really keen to get as many people as we can involved so if you don’t necessarily need to have any previous acting experience to apply for one of the available roles.

“At the moment, we are just collating those who have interest and then we will be sending out audition scripts in the coming weeks.”

Full details of the roles that Nathan is looking to cast in are as follows:

• Male (aged 10 to 12)
• Female (aged 12 to 14)
• Female (aged 14 to 16)
• Female (aged 25 to 30)
• Male (aged 30 and over)

For more details on ‘The Bluebird’s Daughter’ and how to get involved in the casting, you can visit: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61571536221691 or email Nathan via: [email protected].