Sweetshop UK has added the remarkable genre-bending storytelling style of awarded London director, Dorothy Allen-Pickard, to its roster. Allen-Pickard has already created ambitious projects with global brands, such as Fitbit, Nike, Adidas, Google, and Vice, Allen-Pickard. She joins Sweetshop to continue to make compelling relatable and interdisciplinary work.
“There is a raw truth in everything Dorothy creates and a consistent power to her films. She has developed a deep understanding of storytelling and performance through her experience of theatrical, long-form and documentary directing, which combine with her intuitive feel for the edit to create immersive and compelling films whatever medium she is working in,” stated Morgan Whitlock, executive producer at Sweetshop UK.
Allen-Pickard’s filmmaking is deeply inspired by the people and communities she grew up around. She also turns to other disciplines for inspiration, such as dance and, more notably, theatre. The filmmaker is an associate artist at Kestrel Theatre, a company that develops plays in prisons, and a founding member of Breach Theatre.
“I use different techniques to blur genres and create hybrid films,” Allen-Pickard stated. “For example, for a short drama about restorative justice, I’m currently working with a cast of ‘non-professional’ actors, who all have experience with the criminal justice system. By combining these techniques, I hope to bring a strong sense of realism and playfulness to my work.”
Her unique real-life experience storytelling process is achieved through research and experimental development, and improvisational workshops. She’s also working on a short with Guardian Documentaries that uses dramatic reconstruction to get closer to and correctly depict the lived experience of women being spied on in their relationships with undercover officers.
Allen-Pickard’s distinctive, personal, and socially-aware filmmaking style has led to more than a dozen craft awards, including a BFI New Talent Award, New Shoots Award, Best UK Short at Open City Doc Fest, Grand Prix at Arts Convergence, and multiple Vimeo Staff Picks.
Her powerful documentary for Fitbit, What’s Strong With You, highlights different people’s definitions of strength. Her intimate, interview-style short for Nike is about the fitness journey of a London-based DJ. And her gripping, PSA-style documentary short for Vice conveys the devastating impact of smoking on one, under-resourced UK community. Pickard has also been deeply involved with Another Gaze, a feminist film journal and community she co-founded with Daniella Shreir.
“My desire to make films stems from my love of people, and a curiosity to really get to know them. I believe that through making socially and politically engaged work, we can spark conversations that can affect change,” Allen-Pickard continued. “I love how on board with that vision The Sweetshop is, and how there doesn’t seem to be any project too ambitious in their eyes. They’re such a seamless fit for where I want to go with my work.”
After spending all of 2022 assisting Georgi Banks Davies on the Netflix series, Kaos, Allen-Pickard is deepening her work in the branded space and shifting to directing more long-form and narrative work. She’s currently developing her feature debut as well two other projects. The short documentary with Guardian Docs is one; Saving Face with Kestrel Theatre, a stirring short drama about a mother’s attempt to forgive the man who killed her son, is the other.
“We are so excited to have Dorothy at The Sweetshop because we know that modern audiences have more competition for their attention than ever before and are increasingly literate across more spaces, familiar with more styles of storytelling,” Whitlock commented. “That’s what makes Dorothy so exciting: her ability to move seamlessly between a variety of styles while retaining the impact — that is true craft.”
