Directing
Sarah Miles
Sarah Miles was born in Epsom, Surrey. Brought up in West Dorset, she studied drama at South Warwickshire College and English and American studies at the University of East Anglia. Miles' award-winning films blend fragmentary and evocative narratives of family and memory with references from cinema and literature. Miles' films have been screened extensively as single screen and installation works…
Known For
Coping with Cupid · 1991Coping with Cupid
★ 7.51991
MovieFantasyComedy
Three blondes from another planet land on earth to conduct research into romantic love
No Place (Looking Back + Looking Forward) · 2005No Place (Looking Back + Looking Forward)
2005
Movie
No Place, set in King's Cross, London, represents the point of view of a woman (Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz grown up into Judy from Hitchcock's classic Vertigo) looking back, from the apparent sanctuary of a church, contrasting her memories of the countryside with a loss of innocence, and of childhood illusions, following her arrival in the Emerald City. An elusive collage of real and fictional characters who all live in a kind of temporary limbo a long way from home but still looking for a sense of belonging.
Damsel Jam · 1992Damsel Jam
1992
Movie
An organic documentary. Girls experience and women remember being twelve years old, jammed together in a menstrual hearse (a white Talbot lined with red velvet). The body remembers what the mind forgets, going forwards towards the past. Each woman’s memory is reflected in her representation: Stella as an angry, haggard Tinkerbell; Emma made up as Marilyn, headbanging in the forest of dreams. My mother asks for a bag over her head.
Modern Times · 1999Modern Times
1999
Movie
‘Walking is good for untangling a tangled heart.’ Inspired by the final shot of Modern Times Charles Chaplin in which the gamine girl and the tramp walk away from the camera. Commission by Guy Mannes Abbott and Celine Condorelli for Walking 1 to 10.
A Bunny Girl's Tale · 1999A Bunny Girl's Tale
★ 10.01999
MovieDocumentary
Intrigued by the desire to have been a Bunny Girl, the director takes a look at what it meant. Interviewing several of the original Bunnies she learns the rules and expectations on the girls as well as the more sinister side of a 1976 murder.
Amaeru Fallout 1972 · 1997Amaeru Fallout 1972
★ 6.01997
Movie
amaeru(v). the attempt to draw close; depend; belong…’ Two Japanese girls appear in the West country in a radio transmitter field above Eggardon Fort; they go to school in Lyme Regis; they live in the countryside; they sleep in the same bed; they explore the town; they separate. Amaeru.. is a dreamlike narrative of transience and separation, an ode to homesickness through place and time. Includes PJ Harvey performing a specially composed version of the Three Degrees’ "When Will I See You Again."
Magnificent RayMagnificent Ray
Movie
Magnificent Ray explores the western by focusing on gender relations in a confluence of the dream movie genre and everyday life. Filmed on location in Bridport and Portland in West Dorset, and featuring locals as extras and principal players, Florence encounters Ray a subtle souled girl slipping into forgetfulness. Their journey from showdown to slowdown explores the nature of dreams whilst sensing a narrative. Miles teases out the glamorous cowgirl/boy image in teenage girls through music and costume as they adventure through a rich, wild, western landscape. - Jo Lanyon, Director of Picture This Moving Image from the catalogue to the show
2001 A Family Odyssey Ophelia's Version · 20022001 A Family Odyssey Ophelia's Version
2002
Movie
A Family Odyssey Ophelia’s Version is a poetic experimental film exploring the hidden systemic powers of identification within a family constellation through four generations. Ancestors haunt the landscape like screen memories and family members collaborate to perform aspects of themselves. A collage of family album; the filmmaker’s father’s photographic archive; Hollywood narratives including Apocalypse Now, Badlands and Breakfast at Tiffany’s reflect a complex layering of narratives.
Filmography
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