Libby Burke Wilde directs visual project for Cat Burns

Libby Burke Wilde’s early twenties provides a fresh perspective on narrative filmmaking.

A cinematic rendering of the coming-of-age album, the short narrative is a mirror to the transformative years of your early twenties, touching on themes of mental health, friendship, queer love, and loneliness. Cat Burn’s conversational lyrics are almost tangible in Wilde's script, interweaving the lives of five friends on a night out, all at different stages in life. Reassuring and validating, early twenties pairs the vulnerability of early adulthood with an overwhelming feeling of togetherness, achieved, in part, by giving the audience the unique chance to visually experience Burn’s album.

Piecing together the narrative between the music videos for Alone, End Game, and Met Someone, also directed by Wilde, the short film stars a wealth of emerging British acting talent: India Amarteifio (Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story), Sam Reuben (Everything Now), Aiyana Goodfellow (The Outlaws), Melina Sinadinou (Beyond Paradise), and BAFTA-nominated Samuel Bottomley (How To Have Sex, Sundown).

“Your early 20s are one of the most transformative times in life, which I think is what makes it so memorable. It’s a time of limbo between childhood and fully-fledged adulthood. Responsibilities are creeping in, but some things are still carefree.

Cat Burns – Early Twenties

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Production Company New Land
Director Libby Burke Wilde

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Credits

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Production Company New Land
Director Libby Burke Wilde
Post Production Black Kite Studios
Audio Post No.8
Executive Producer Pat Burns
Executive Producer Trine Pillay
Executive Producer Stephanie Walton
Producer Melissa Giles

Costume Designer Cynthia Lawrence-John
DP Joe Cook
Editor Sarah Peczek
Colorist Richard Fearon
Color Producer Jamie McCubbin
VFX Lead Marcus Moffatt
VFX Producer Polly Durrance
Sound Designer Sam Robson

Sound Designer James Everett
Audio Executive Producer Karen Noden

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It’s also a time when your relationship to yourself and others is changing dramatically. Cat mentions all these things in her album. Not knowing where you want to be, not feeling comfortable in your own skin, loneliness and having low self-esteem. All universal themes that feel so heightened in your early twenties. I wanted to make a film that touches on many of these feelings. It reflects the dramatic highs and epic lows of this time in your life, but leaves you with a feeling of hope for the future.' said Libby Burke Wilde.

Wilde’s script gives us soft and intimate glimpses into the characters’ inner worlds and anxieties. Each scene provides a new insight to the album; balancing emotionally charged scenes with the energy, colour and vibrancy of youth. Through beautiful cinematography and editing, the result is deeply humanising, leaving the audience with a warm feeling of reassurance or perhaps, bittersweet nostalgia.

“It was so lovely to work with everyone on this fabulous short film! I just wanted to convey to anyone who watches it that you aren’t alone in your experiences, and that we’re all in this together.” adds Cat Burns.