Jack Harries Partners with Alice Aedy for New Documentary

The documentary film looks into the “silent loneliness epidemic in the UK”.

The idea for the film began in June 2018, after the UK government created the position of Minister for Loneliness.

Speaking about the project on Instagram, Jack Harries shares that it helped spark an idea about the overall concept of loneliness during the digital age:

“We were interested in the idea that, despite being more connected than ever before, loneliness is still a major issue.”

Disconnected looks into what director Alice Aedy has deemed “the silent loneliness epidemic in the UK” and features anonymous testimonies from British citizens. In order to get the testimonies, a phone line was set up:

“We were overwhelmed with the response,” shares Jack in the Instagram post. “In the first day we received over 50 messages and the mailbox was full. We spent the next few days painstakingly recording, and then deleting each message, to make way for more.”

View this post on Instagram

In June 2018 we had the idea for ‘Dissconnected’. Having learnt that the UK asigned a ‘Minister For Loneliness’, we were interested in the idea that, despite being more connected than ever before, loneliness is still a major issue. In order to explore this, we decided to set up a phone line in which people could call and leave an anonymous message sharing their experience. We were overwhelmed with the response. In the first day we received over 50 messages and the mailbox was full. We spent the next few days painstakingly recording, and then deleting each message, to make way for more. The process of listening to the messages was eye opening, but also strangely comforting realising that so many people were experiencing the same thing. In a way, we realised we are alone together. Today this film feels more relevant than ever before, and we are excited that it has just premiered on @vimeo. We’ll be doing a live Q&A about the film on @aliceaedy Instagram on Sunday at 4:00pm (GMT+1). The link to the film is in my bio.

A post shared by Jack Harries (@jackharries) on Apr 4, 2020 at 3:34am PDT

He continues: “The process of listening to the messages was eye opening, but also strangely comforting realising that so many people were experiencing the same thing. In a way, we realised we were alone together.”

The film premiered on Vimeo earlier this week. Over the course of the last year, it has been featured in numerous film festivals, including Sheffield Doc/Fest, the Warsaw Film Festival and the Bolton Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Student Film.

Those wishing to watch Disconnected can do so via Alice’s official Vimeo page.

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