I am good at karate follows a young teenager who is forced to battle a Demon made of football shirts.
Written and directed by Jess Dadds, the film features the voices of Jason Williamson from English post-punk band Sleaford Mods, and Writer Nathan Filer, most well known for his award winning novel The Shock of the Fall.
The film received a special mention by the international jury at Encounters Film Festival due to how the film “explores the complex intersections of class, mental health and coming of age, with a strong self-assured visual style”
Funded by BFI NETWORK.
Featured at:
Encounters Film Festival, British Award, Special Mention 2022
Montreal Festival Du Nouveau Cinema, 2022
Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, 2022
London Short Film Festival, 2022
Ale Kino! IYAFF 2022
Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, 2022
CRYSTAL EARTH is a film by Jess Dadds for EIRINN HAYHOW’S SS22 campaign. The film was presented as part of London Fashion Week 2021, and was supported by the British Fashion Council.
Sinking Statues is the debut music video from artist/filmmaker Jess Dadds. Working closely with the band, the video attempts to re-create the psychedelic energy and atmosphere of a Jouis live show.
Sinking Statues was premiered on Clash Magazine July 2nd 2019.
https://www.clashmusic.com/videos/brightons-jouis-race-to-heaven-on-sinking-statues
"Sinking Statues" features on Jouis' 2019 album "Mind Bahn"
Blurring the line between fiction and reality Dadds protagonist discusses his real life troubles while rats climb over him. Highlighting the feelings of dissatisfaction at being underpaid and undervalued, he acts as spokesperson for disaffected youth.
Commissioned by Channel 4, Random Acts, 2016.
Featured at:
ICA London, Playback Festival 8th-12th March 2017
The Curve, Slough, Shorts Before Features – 8 Days a Week May 17th 2017
GoMA Glasgow, Mount Florida Screenings 08, June 2nd 2017
The Waste Free Fashion Collective respond to Katie Patterson's exhibition: "A Place That Exists Only In Moonlight" at Turner Contemporary, Margate.
All costumes made entirely from waste products.
The Waste Fashion Collective:
-Gloria Royer
-Dream safari
-Robert George Sanders
-Erin Laurel Hayhow.
Commissioned by Future Foundry, 2019.
The Goose Hunter is a short surreal comedy/satire set on the marshland of the Isle of Thanet. The film follows a paranoid bird watcher bemoaning the influx of migratory geese from Canada. Despite occurring in a post-brexit universe, The Goose Hunter still finds herself unable to control the forces that she feels impact upon her life.
Featured at:
The Hellfire Film Festival, Short Film Selection – Folkestone October 2017
Cinecity, The Brighton Film Festival, Short Film Selection – Brighton November 2017
Ramsgate International Film and Television Festival, Short Film Selection – Ramsgate March 2018
“‘Seeking Safety’ is a short film made with asylum seekers in Kent. They arrived in the UK as children but have been refused protection and the right to remain permanently in the UK. It shows them talking about their experience of living without a secure immigration status under threat of destitution, detention and deportation.
Commissioned by Mind in Bexley and made with the help of Kent Refugee Action Network 2016.
"flowers" is a video installation piece that presents a surreal and dystopian focus on activism in the information age, whilst drawing on themes of environmentalism and semiotics.
Exhibitions/Screenings:
"I am Trash" - Crate Space Gallery, May 2019
"Salon" - UOB School of Media Gallery, August 2019
"Friendly Gang Part 3" - Studio 45, September 2019