#90: Prano Bailey-Bond, Filmmaker

I’m back! Not with a brand new season - just yet - but with a triple-bill of bonus episodes that I recorded a couple of months ago either for live events or to tie-in with a film release.

The first in this series is with the immensely talented, and very down-to-earth writer-director Prano Bailey-Bond.

Prano grew up in Wales on a diet of Twin Peaks before becoming an editor and then award-winning music video director. Her narrative short films have screened at festivals worldwide and earned her critical acclaim, including being named a Screen International ‘Star of Tomorrow’ in 2018. 

Her debut feature film, Censor, had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival opening the festival's Midnight section and will be released in UK cinemas this Friday. 

Censor is set in Britain in 1985 and follows a film censor called Enid, played by BAFTA-nominated actress Niamh Algar, as she discovers an eerie horror that speaks directly to her sister’s mysterious disappearance. She then resolves to unravel the puzzle behind the film and its enigmatic director – a quest that will blur the lines between fiction and reality in terrifying ways. Which sounds suitably nerve-shredding…

I actually saw the film last week and its disturbing and hallucinogenic and suitably nasty, and that’s all I’m going to say because it’s probably best you go in with minimal info. 

Prano and I discuss many things: how she discovered directing was her calling, the conditions she prefers in order to write, how she prepares for a shoot, how she communicates with and directs actors, how she established a common visual language with DP Annika Summerson and what it’s been like releasing a horror film amidst a ‘women-directing-genre-films’ boom. 

It was a really lovely conversation, I’m a big fan of Prano’s and the film’s so I highly recommend you book a ticket immediately after listening to the podcast.