Black Church Bay is Joe Locke’s latest project, in which he stars alongside award-winning actor Tom Cullen. The movie follows the aftermath of the disappearance of Jasper (Locke) and the inner turmoil of the main character, Jasper’s teacher Barry (Cullen).
Barry finds himself torn between two choices when Jasper disappears after the two spend the weekend together: either tell his student’s family about the weekend and push himself out of the closet in the process, or keep his secrets while his small town community suffers.
With the film gearing up for its London Film Festival screenings, director Rhys Marc Jones spoke to PinkNews about his fascination with the themes of “repression and inauthenticity, especially transgression as a result of repression.”
He explained, “I didn’t want to kind of sugarcoat this subject matter,” assuring viewers that Black Church Bay won’t fail to examine the issues surrounding the power dynamic in this age-gapped student/teacher relationship.
The writer shared further insights into his process with the characters, saying, “I deliberately wanted to try and take away the kind of baggage of the abuse of power from the off and see how people sit with this and then complicate it further.”
He continued, “I was very conscious of it; the structure of the film is like a fantasy that becomes a nightmare. I don’t think you could say it shows it in any sort of good light, but I don’t think it is overly judgmental.”
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Jones did stress that Black Church Bay may not be for everyone due to its heavy subject matter, and explained that it was difficult to find funding because of this. When pitching the movie, he was advised he could get funding easier if he moved the filming location from the Welsh island of Anglesey, but he refused, arguing it had, “atmospheric importance that I felt was super vital to the story.”
The film was eventually shot on Anglesey, as per the original creative vision. It now joins two other queer films made there, Helen Walsh’s On The Sea and Celyn Jones’ Madfabulous, two very different movies in terms of genre.
While Locke himself hasn’t spoken directly about Black Church Bay, Jones did say that Locke is “eager to subvert his image, as child stars often do”. This indicates we might be seeing a new side to the Heartstopper star’s acting, with a more mature or darker tone.
Locke seems to be fighting against typecasting, as he is set to star in another new and exciting project, the upcoming body horror Baby. The plot is outlined as “a young male sex worker who becomes pregnant with a mysterious creature.”
While no official worldwide release date is available yet, Black Church Bay is to be screened at the London Film Festival on October 15 and 17, with all tickets sold out. The film promises audiences an exciting watch, with it already being nominated for the Best International Feature Film award at the Zurich Film Festival. Currently on IMDB, it scores an impressive 8.0 out of 10.
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