With a direct and spontaneous approach, Filmmaker Lucy Kaye creates intimate portraits of diverse
individuals in three Northern English towns. Through the stories of people connected by place, the
film explores our relationship with where we’ve come from, what we’ve left behind and where we
live. Amongst the people we meet are Bini, a former asylum seeker trying to root himself in
Middlesbrough; Stella, a Polish woman stuck in the UK after a relationship breakdown, making a
life for herself and her daughter; and Jan, a former power station worker enveloped in nostalgia for
the past. We also get to know Yubi, a Pakistani immigrant mourning the passing of his father in
Wakefield; and Lisa, another Halifax resident determined to make sure the voices of her
community are heard. In pared-back verité style that deploys music and lingering shots of the
landscape that defines these lives, From Where We Stand offers the people whose lives are
portrayed, time and space to express how they feel about their lives and their towns.
Lucy Kaye
Lucy Kaye is a freelance documentary filmmaker based in London. With a background in Visual Anthropology, she graduated from the National Film and Television school in 2009. She has worked for the BBC, Channel 4, Vice, The Guardian with subjects ranging from PTSD to Horse Whispering. Her First Cut film for Ch4 received critical acclaim and she was recently awarded the prestigious Pears Short Film Award for her film Memory Songs. She is currently the Documentary Term Tutor at The London Film School. Her passion lie’s in making creative, character-driven films that can have a universal appeal.