2023 / 70 min / UK / Fantasy Experimental

Directed by Grant McPhee
Cast: Loro Stott, Ashley Sutherland

“The Other Side of the Forest” is a fantasy Pop-Art Fairytale starring Lori Stott (BBC’s The Demon Headmaster) and Ashley Sutherland. It is the tale of a shy young woman seeking her fame in the dark work of the 1960s folk-music underground. Lori’s journey to stardom takes her on a journey far beyond the familiar music world she is trying to break into and instead breaks out to a forgotten past of rural landscapes, magic, myth, dead Gods and mysterious fallen angels.

It is a bold mix of influences covering 1960’s British Youth-Film such as “Smashing Time’, Carnaby Street news-reels and the Counter-Culture texts ‘The White Goddess’, ‘The House on the Borderland’ and ‘The Golden Bough’.

It bravely plays with structure and narrative while playing with the genre tropes and musical group performances.

It was filmed with analogue sound and film equipment, incorporating various 16mm and Super8 processing techniques – hand developing, vintage cameras, sellotaped film editing, scratching, and film looping.

The film was edited by Andy Morrison (Lord of the Rings, The English, Outlander, The Man Who Fell to Earth and The Last Kingdom).

The soundtrack is exclusively written by Post-Punk legend, Jowe Head (Swell Maps and Television Personalities).