3.9 Filmmaker Interview with Luke Shelley, Jenna-Louise Hawkins, and Sophie Stacey

In today's episode, I interview Luke Shelley, Jenna-Louise Hawkins, and Sophie Stacey, the director, writer, and producer of the short film "What We Wished We Could Be," a story of a young couple dealing with illness as a result of contaminated blood.

Listen to hear about Jenna-Louise's personal experience that inspired the story, some of the challenges of casting the film, and the challenges of setting the film in two distinct time periods.

Books mentioned in this episode include:

• Bleeding Fabulous by Mark Ward
• Death in the Blood: the most shocking scandal in NHS history from the journalist who has followed the story for over two decades by Caroline Wheeler
• Cicero: Selected Works

Films mentioned in this episode include:

• "What We Wished We Could Be" directed by Luke Shelley
• Marriage Story directed by Noah Baumbach 
• The Apartment directed by Billy Wilder
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade directed by Steven Spielberg
• Midnight Cowboy directed by John Schlesinger
• Black Swan directed by Darren Aronofsky
• The Exorcist directed by William Friedkin
• Mulholland Dr. directed by David Lynch
• Watership Down directed by Martin Rosen
• The Untouchables directed by Brian DiPalma
• Erin Brockovich directed by Steven Soderbergh
• Hot Fuzz directed by Edgar Wright
• The Lord of the Rings directed by Peter Jackson

 "What We Wished We Could Be" will be continuing its festival run throughout 2025.

On Instagram Luke is @dirlukeshelley, Jenna-Louise is @jennalouhawkins, and Sophie is @sophielst. You can also follow the film @whatwewishedfilm for all the latest updates.