EXCLUSIVE: Burnt Milk, a film project from British-Jamaican filmmaker Joseph Douglas Elmhirst, has been acquired by the Criterion Channel.
The film is available to watch on the streamer starting today.
Running just over nine minutes, Burnt Milk was commissioned by the British Pavilion for the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, marking the first time a film was included as part of the Pavilion’s official offerings.
The film was shot on rich 16mm Kodak and is shaped around a lyrical monologue voiced by Tamara Lawrance (Get Millie Black), but attributed to the fictional Una, played by first-time actor Clover Webb, who we see on-screen. She’s an older Jamaican woman in London, a member of the Windrush generation, and her life is beset by the crippling isolation of 1980’s England. Thatcher’s England. One day, she takes a moment of solace to make burnt milk, a ritual that takes her and the audience back home.
A contemporary family affair, the film’s narrative was inspired by an upcoming novel written by Elmhirst’s mother, Miss Ronnie, and the project was produced by his sister, Ruby Elmhirst, who played a key role in putting the commission together.
“Despite a six-week production timeline from commission to first screening, and a skeleton crew with just three days to shoot due to a limited budget, we pulled together and created something truly impactful,” Ruby said. “It serves as a reminder to keep pursuing projects that can resonate. Burnt Milk continues to inspire me.”
After the Venice debut, Elmhirst screened Burnt Milk across the festival circuit, with stops at Blackstar Film Festival, where the film won Best Narrative Short, Black Harvest Film Festival in Chicago, and the Humboldt International Film Festival. The film was also screened as part of curated programmes at BAM in New York and The Ritzy in London. Following the Criterion release, Burnt Milk will receive a symposium screening and discussion at UC Berkeley on April 11th.
“We are thrilled to share Burnt Milk with our Criterion Channel audience,” Criterion Curatorial Director Ashley Clark said in a statement. “Joseph’s film is a moving, thoughtful, and stylistically ambitious exploration of Jamaican identity, and he is an exciting filmmaker with a big future.”
Elmhirst has directed two other film projects that have also straddled both film and art spaces. His directorial debut, Mada (2020), screened at Leeds Film Festival, Slamdance, and Deep Focus Film Festival before being installed in The National Gallery of Jamaica as part of the Jamaican Biennial. His second project, Like A Baptism, was released through Nowness.
Like many contemporary filmmakers working beyond traditional ideas of structure and narrative, Elmhirst told us that he sees his practice continuing to exist in both spaces.
“I had never thought about it until we were in Venice and John Akomfrah asked me, ‘Do you see yourself in more of the world of film or art?’ And I said maybe both,” Elmhirst said. “I’m slowly realizing it’s just about communication. I love the idea of this project, Burnt Milk, because it has been able to exist in both seamlessly. And that’s been really thrilling.
Scroll down to read an interview with Elmhirst. We discuss how and when the film was commissioned for the Biennale, how he assembled a crew to shoot and deliver the project in just over a month, and his future plans. You can see a trailer for the film above.
DEADLINE: Joseph, tell me about yourself. You’re based in Brooklyn? How did you get started in this game?
JOSEPH DOUGLAS ELMHIRST: I’ve just been working for the last few years, trying to make things I want to see and find interesting, for whatever reason, that has started in Jamaica and has continued to grow there. It’s been an incredible learning experience.
DEADLINE: You’re British-Jamaican right?
ELMHIRST: Yeah, my mother lives in Jamaica. She’s first generation. Her parents immigrated during the Windrush period, and she’s lived there for several years. So it’s a big part of my life, and always has been, and it’s been incredible for it to then become part of my creative life, too.
DEADLINE: How did the commission for Venice come about?
ELMHIRST: It came about because of a conversation between my sister, who produced the film with me, and a curator for that year in Venice called Joseph Zeal-Henry. They had a conversation about rituals, and she connected the dots that perhaps there could be something that she could produce, that I could create, which could be based on this novel that my mother had written. I believe it was about six weeks from the date of the commission to the date it screened.
DEADLINE: Damn, that’s fast and surprising.
ELMHIRST: Yeah, we shot it in four days, so it was quick. It taught me a lot about how I want to work. I’m at my strongest when I’m instinctual, so it was an incredible experience.
DEADLINE: So where did you shoot? Were those London sequences shot in the UK?
ELMHIRST: No, that was such a challenge. We spent two or three days shooting in Jamaica, then flew straight to New York and shot for an afternoon there. But it’s very challenging to find apartments in New York that looks like they could be London apartments, particularly for the period we were talking about, 1985 London. Luckily, a filmmaker called Anthony Jamari Thomas had recommended his grandmother’s apartment. She had emigrated from the Caribbean in the 70s, and her apartment was almost completely untouched, so it was spontaneous luck.
DEADLINE: So where did you find condensed milk in New York?
ELMHIRST: You can actually find condensed milk in New York, although I don’t think we used condensed milk. We used caramel because the texture of burnt milk is more like caramel. And my sister designed and attached what looked like a condensed milk label. That’s the luck of being related to a great producer.
DEADLINE: The film has such a rich visual look. What did you shoot on?
ELMHIRST: The whole thing was shot on 16 millimeter Kodak. We shot the black and white scenes in black and white, and then the color scenes in color. It was also such a thrilling experience to photograph Jamaica in that way. The island environment is so associated with saturation and bright colors. Draining all of that out was exciting to me, and I felt revealed a deeper psychological truth.
DEADLINE: And Criterion. How did this acqusition come about? I know Ashley Clark and those dudes are often circling interesting work.
ELMHIRST: It’s funny, with my first film, Mada, which came out when I was 22, I ridiculously, in only the way a 22-year-old would, sent it to the support desk email account at Criterion. I think that email is actually for tech support. I don’t even know what I said, but I asked if they would consider it, which, looking back, is absurd. Surprisingly, a few months later, I got a response and an incredible critique from Ashley. I remember being completely blown away that he had taken the time to watch the film, but also gave me substantial feedback about what he thought the problems with it were, and what he felt I needed to work on as a filmmaker. I went away and made some other things, and when I made this film, I sent it to him and asked if it would be something they would be interested in. He loved it and decided to support it.
DEADLINE: Moving forward, do you see yourself existing more in the film or art world?
ELMHIRST: I’m slowly realizing it’s just about communication. I love the idea of this project, Burnt Milk, because it has been able to exist in both seamlessly. And that’s been really thrilling. Every project is different, and if I’m granted the ability to exist in both spaces, it would be incredible. But I’m working on more things right now that I imagine are more suited to the film space.
DEADLINE: What are you working on now?
ELMHIRST: I’m working on a documentary alongside my first narrative feature.
DEADLINE: Tell me about the current film scene in Jamaica. The country has such a rich artistic history and it’s really been one of the central influences across the disaspora.
ELMHIRST: It’s such a rich history. And there are so many stories that haven’t been told. It’s not a question of talent or stories. The reality is that there are limited venues where you can show a film in Jamaica, and hopefully that will change. But there are so many great storytellers and artists in Jamaica. So even if there isn’t an increase in spaces to show those works, there will be a growing pool of Jamaican born talent.
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