Charlie Shackleton (formerly Charlie Lyne; born 15 August 1991) is a British filmmaker, multimedia artist, and film critic. He has made several films, including '' Beyond Clueless,'' '' Fear Itself'' and the 2016 protest film '' Paint Drying'' as well as the multimedia performance piece '' As Mine Exactly''.

Early life

Charlie Shackleton was born on 15 August 1991, at St Mary's Hospital in London, raised by his mother, Jane Shackleton. He details in his piece ''As Mine Exactly'' how their relationship evolved after she developed

epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrical ...

when he was a child. At the time, Shackleton videotaped several of her seizures at the request of her medical team.

Career

Shackleton established the movie blog Ultra Culture in 2008, at the age of 16. In 2010, Shackleton joined the BBC programme ''Film 2010'', after being approached by host

Claudia Winkleman Claudia Anne Irena Winkleman (born 15 January 1972) is an English television presenter, radio personality, film critic and journalist. Between 2004 and 2010, she presented '' Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two'' on weeknights on BBC Two. Since ...

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. Shackleton left the show after one season. He continues to write film criticism as a regular contributor to ''

Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...

''. His debut film '' Beyond Clueless'' premiered at

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

in 2014. The film, an essayistic exploration of nineties

teen movies Teen film is a film genre targeted at teenagers, preteens, or young adults by the plot being based on their special interests, such as coming of age, attempting to fit in, bullying, peer pressure, first love, teen rebellion, conflict with pare ...

narrated by

Fairuza Balk Fairuza Balk (born May 21, 1974) is an American actress, musician, and visual artist. Influential in popular culture, Balk is known for her portrayals of distinctive " goth-girl" characters, often with a dark edge. She has appeared in numerous in ...

, was crowdfunded through

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

. His second, '' Fear Itself'', debuted on the

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...

in October 2015. Like his debut, it utilised existing film footage and original narration, this time exploring the

horror genre Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian ...

. In 2016, Shackleton again took to Kickstarter to crowdfund a 607-minute film of white paint drying on a brick wall to be submitted to the

British Board of Film Classification The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of f ...

in a protest against censorship and mandatory classification for films released in the UK. On 26 January 2016, ''Paint Drying'' was given a U rating for 'no material likely to offend or harm'. In 2018 he founded the production company LOOP with filmmakers Antony Ing and Catherine Bray. The same year they offered three 'no-strings-attached' filmmaker grants of £5,000, which were awarded to Jamie Janković, Grace Lee, and John Ogunmuyiwa. Loop will not retain any copyright or ownership of the films. Charlie Shackleton

Through Loop, Shackleton continued to direct and produce features and shorts in the essay film format. His short documentaries ''Fish Story'' and ''Lasting Marks'', published through ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', focussed on the family history of film critic Caspar Salmon and the British police's investigation into same-sex male sadomasochism in the 1980s, respectively. ''Lasting Marks'' was a co-production with documentarian

Laura Poitras Laura Poitras (; born February 2, 1964) is an American director and producer of documentary films. Poitras has received numerous awards for her work, including the 2015 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for ''Citizenfour'', about Edwa ...

's company Field of Vision, and based on Shackleton's own archival research. He worked with Ross Sutherland on the essay film ''Stand By for Tape Back-Up'', which used the degrading quality of VHS tapes to explore familial grief, and was a creative consultant on Kitty Green's '' The Assistant''. In 2021 and 2022 respectively he began touring two new projects: '' The Afterlight'', another essay film which exists as a single print which will degrade with each showing, and ''As Mine Exactly'', a virtual reality performance piece about his mother's experiences with

. Both works can only be accessed in person; ''As Mine Exactly'' is performed one-on-one by Shackleton for each individual. ''As Mine Exactly'' was performed in Belfast; Denver; Columbus; New York City; London; Lewisburg, PA; and Columbia, MO for between 20 and 52 individuals in each city. The piece won the Immersive Art and XR Award at the 2022

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

Personal life

According to Shackleton, he and his mother were abandoned by his father when he was a baby. He started using his father's surname, Lyne, around 2004 in what he termed "a fit of teenage reinvention". In 2019, regretting the decision, he resumed using his mother's last name.

Works

Film

*'' Beyond Clueless'' (2014) *''Copy Cat'' (2015) *'' Fear Itself'' (2015) *'' Paint Drying'' (2016) *''Fish Story'' (2017) *''Personal Truth'' (2017) *''Lasting Marks'' (2018) *''A Machine For Viewing'' (2019) *'' The Afterlight'' (2021)

Multimedia

* ''As Mine Exactly'' (2022)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shackleton, Charlie English film critics English television presenters British bloggers 1991 births Living people English filmmakers Multimedia artists Collage filmmakers