Narrative Practice Consultation for Creative Projects

I work alongside artists, creatives and educators in articulating their visions in ways that can be shared with clarity and can withstand the various challenges that arise in the process of transforming ideas and experience into expressions and projects that shine light on topics and themes in unique, ethical and influential ways. I'm particularly interested in how we can support people engaged in creative projects to work with sensitive topics and issues in ways that sustain well-being and mental health care for all involved in the process.
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Current Projects

Wet Togetherness

Xiaolu Wang
The spirit of a drowned child leads Xiaolu on a pilgrimage to dismantle the fear of water. By visiting with humans and marine mammals who are exploring interdependence and collective organizing, new paradigms of engaging with the water and each other, emerge.

The Treasury of Human Inheritance

Alexis Kyle Mitchell
'...an experimental auto-ethnography about living inside family, tradition, genetics and disease.'

Phantasy, Psychoanalysis and Ph(f)ictions

Phantasy, Psychoanalysis and Ph(f)ictions invites 4 artists, Allie J Carr, Jade Montserrat, Samantha Sweeting and Michelle Williams Gamaker to work using the Lacanian model of the Cartel: a small, focused working group which invites expert mentors to join them in co-researching. Supported by the Arts Council England's Develop Your Creative Practice bursary, this year-long research group will meet four times to forge an artistic alliance with individuals working creatively within the fields of Phantasy, Psychoanalysis and Ph (f)iction. The aim is to produce an artistic publication and to build a network between artists and individuals working with psychoanalysts.

The Mask that Grins and Lies

Martine Granby
A meditative documentary feature unveiling a triptych portrait of intergenerational silence and the stigma shrouding Black women's mental health.

A Place To Stand (working title)

Tess Hutson
A deeply personal journey investigating how violence manifests in relationships, families, and communities, by seeking to uncover the secrets surrounding a horrific tragedy.

The wolves always come at night (working title)

Gabrielle Brady
A feature hybrid film alongside a Mongolian nomadic family tracing their displacement from their homeland to the ger districts of the city.

Toward Reckoning (working title)

Imogen Butler-Cole
Toward Reckoning is a memoir about healing after sexual trauma and an exploration of the monolith of sexual harm. It asks questions such as: how is it possible to heal in a world that doesn’t feel safe? What does it take to encounter and accept ourselves, wholly and at the deepest level? And what positives, if any, can we take from our experiences?
The book follows Imogen on her path from denial to recognition, through complex processes of relearning to eventual ongoing healing, all while charting how the effects of her sexual assaults played out through relentless exhaustion, internalised shame and a deep mistrust in others.

Nightdrifters

Florian Kunert
Hybrid feature film in development.

Completed Projects

Freedom Swimmer

This is the story of a grandfather’s perilous swim from China to Hong Kong that parallels his granddaughter’s own quest for a new freedom.
Winner of the academy accredited Yoram Gross award at the Sydney Film festival and screened and many festivals including International Film Festival Rotterdam, Slamdance, Stuttgart Animation Festival and Aspen Shortsfest.

Get to the Wire

'...in the year 2032, Judy, an environmental refugee from Australia, is being detained in a British detention centre while isolated from her family...'

"The absence of the witch does not invalidate the spell"

"...By positioning photos taken through my laptop, alongside existing portraits taken in person; this collection
attempts to visually depict the difference in contact we are experiencing as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic...the title, taken from Emily Dickenson’s poem “1383” about friendship and endurance, encapsulates my thoughts on how we still care for and love one another, even though we cannot be physically present in each other’s lives..."

Belongings: A photographic exploration of Surti family heirlooms

"...a collection of stories told through family heirlooms in Surat, India...the participants spoke about keeping their heirlooms to evoke memory, preserve a story, or represent a precious moment in time...each object, significant in its own right, reveals the participants’ connection to their ancestors, and suggests a subtle connection between the present and the past..."
Solange sie noch arme haben
As long as you still have arms

"The 1980s of the GDR - the group around the puppeteer Frank is arrested for distributing pacifist pamphlets...Different truths and memories stand side by side. The focus is on a person who tries to never act out of a position of victim and shows his personal approach to the dictatorship of the GDR." Hofer-filmtage
trailer
Fortschritt im Tal der Ahnungslosen
Progress in the Valley of the People Who Don't Know

"One of the most original, funny and at the same time melancholic films of the Berlinale 2019" Andrea D’Addio - Goethe Institut
Foreign Body

“A truthful tender story of reclaiming the body after abuse. A beautiful and brave piece.... strikingly simple…. one of the most truthful explorations of the subject…. restrained direction... a stunning soundtrack… this show will only continue to grow and charge people with the courage to speak out.” Hiive
Island of the Hungry Ghosts

“The best documentary award goes to a film that demonstrates extraordinary mastery of the full symphonic range of cinematic tools: cinematography, editing, score, sound design and, perhaps greatest of all, an exquisite use of metaphor. To a film that moved us deeply, impressed us immensely and made us feel we were witnessing nothing less than the emergence, fully formed, of a major new cinematic talent." Tribeca Jury, 2018

What filmmakers/creatives/educators say...

"...(Poh) is one of the most extraordinary guides in my creative and inner work. She helped me overcome some major hurdles with Foreign Body, encouraging my vision for it and enabling me to take it to a wider audience than I'd dared to imagine ...” Imogen Butler Cole, Theatre maker, business trainer, public speaker and activist www.imogenbutler-cole.co.uk/

"At the end of the project Poh Lin carried out a long interview about the process of making the film which helped to connect the dots and reflect the events of a three year working process. It not only built the foundation for writing the synopsis and director's statement, but also helped me to arrive at a deeper understanding of the decisions and learnings I made along the way and how they are both part of my own biography and wider socio-cultural and historical context." Florian Kunert, filmmaker www.floriankunert.com

'”...These sessions with Poh Lin help to open up a powerful and supportive space for navigating and grounding one's practice, methods and intentions, and explores how these elements may sit in relation to your personal and professional narratives…” Brigitte Hart, sound artist & vocalist www.brigittehart.com

"...Poh Lin's contribution to the project was invaluable. At a point where the creative process had derailed we identified the emotional disconnect causing the problem and explored the options to get the documentary back on track. She immediately understood the heart of the film - the story we were trying to tell - and helped to arrive at some very practical suggestions to move forward..." Eddie Narain, filmmaker

"I worked with Poh Lin while experiencing a creative block in my culinary work. I was very unsure about how her approach could help me but I was taken aback by the whole process...her questions and angles drew from me what was always there but had been squashed by months of business pressure and self doubt...it not only shifted this specific block but also brought to light some internal ideas I was holding around my own capabilities that, once recognised I was able to step away from and move forward with confidence. An incredibly positive outcome." Jade, chocolatier and business owner wawachocolatier.com

"I had already had the premiere of the film and it had been showing at festivals for some months, so I felt it had come around a full circle in terms of the process of making the film. But then I engaged with Poh Lin for a full day session and realised I hadn’t finished the project at all! This one day immersive session with Poh Lin allowed me to look at the film in a completely unexpected way that was not connected to industry standards, but rather my very own personal experience. Poh Lin used a series of exercises that used metaphors, rituals, visualisations and unique questioning so that I was able to reconnect to the journey I had in making the film. From this I was clearly able to see how I had grown as a director during the process, but also to see what difficult parts of the process I was ready to shed so that I may begin embarking on my next film idea. Seeing the film through symbolism and visualisation I was able to experience the core beauty of what I had been able to create in collaboration with others. It helped me immensely to move away from the self critic that had been preventing me from connecting to my imagination so that I could be so much more free and loose and ready to explore the early ideas of my next film, without stopping myself every second thought!" Gabrielle, filmmaker www.gabrielle-brady.com