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JAY FARLEY

/FILMMAKER/DIGITAL ARTIST/POET

ARTHOUSE PROPOSAL – A BIT ABOUT ME

As a filmmaker and cinematographer  of over 20 years I have been award winning, had success at festivals and been broadcast in Europe. I am a director of First Take a filmmaking and digital art organisation company

Since transitioning to non-binary in 2022, I became a poet and gained a voice overnight , and was award winning and published in my first year of practice.

Subsequently I  became interested in the study of and practice of Neuroqueering and queer ecology  and how neuroqueer ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving can re-wild and decolonise people and society, breaking the spell of capitalism and lead to freedom and our natural state of being. This has led me to think about my craft, my work environment, and my personal life in a new light.

I have recently begun investigating and trying to incorparate sustainable ways of working and I’ve been creating anthotypes using spinach and turmeric and other flowers. I’m so excited to be part of keeping analogue film/photography alive, but evolving the craft by using new technology and a sustainable workflow and philosophy.

 

I feel this opportunity has come at the perfect time to make this massive shift in my work. It will give me the opportunity I need to (re)/wild the photography and filmmaking process and thoroughly explore ways of Integrating old techniques such as anthotypes using natural materials, pigments and dyes with analogue still film cameras, 8mm and 16 film cameras but also incorporating digital too to create a sustainable hybrid practice. This could include anthotype animation, natural analogue still and moving film techniques.

I would connect with the few artists/makers/scientists nationally/internationally working in this field such as Sustainable Darkroom and to inform my experiments to create a system and workflow in order to make this a viable option for myself and in turn other makers/artists.

I would be keen to use the darkroom, garden and print studio interchangeably. Using them individually but also all three as part of a workflow to create work.

  • The darkroom experimenting on natural and sustainable ways to print and develop film.
  • The garden to  experiment using the plants from the garden to use as dyes, pigments and photosensitive emulsions and other possibilities.  
  • The print studio as part of the process- using plants as ink and creating ways of using natural printing combining analogue photography, plants and prints to create natural animations, films. 

I would also like to integrate my poetry and writing into the process

I’m currently interested in using these techniques on a project looking into my dads dementia called the 7094 mysteries which looks into my Dad’s dementia and his past life as a political activist. (Miners Strike, Peoples march for jobs etc)  It will explore where my Dad ‘goes’ when he isn’t lucid – what worlds is he living in?   Are they utopian? dystopian?    Why does he collect old phones on his windowsill?   What does 7094 mean he’s written across the walls of his house?  My dad was also a self taught photographer and has old negatives, analogue cameras and stills from this era that I would be keen to use and experiment with. Additionally I could experiment with  my work into queer ecology.

breadbin7094
smile dad 7094

A Cupboard Full of Tomboys – A poem that explores my trans experience but also using an athotype behind

walking >>> 

past no mark small time \\ small town shops | past a bookies, a Jarg KFC \\past a closed down half post office\\half pound shop half nail salon. Some [weeds] bloke\\ing through where the <outsourced> Council Parks and Maintenance had missed a patch of pavement with !Monsanto’s Roundup! Then, I [didn’t] go into a bedroom showroom and in there, I opened a [cupboard] It was full of tomboys thousands of them all ladded in | They were all there [two Joan’s/1 armored/ 1Pope’d up/Vesta/Tiny/Scout/Marlene/Jodie /Frida/Mae/ kate>kae> | Someone> had just chucked them in there <<<and some had just walked in of their own accord / It stunk of sweaty socks / and soil / and climbed trees | With shin pads 1 proud bruises /yer dad’s watch/ dungarees / dirty knees / None of them where past                13               years                 old 

Frozen                   in                    Time

 

[                                                          [T o m b o y]                                                                 T i m e]

 

little amber inclusions =   syruped in                Lucozade

I asked them    >>>         how they got there Some didn’t even know [they] were there …Some had been lost >some had been looking / For the lost .  .  .   Football / I saw myself/ In the cupboard /I pulled out my posture it was on hangers \\that were meat hooks [JJJ] My gender[boy?[enby]] was sewn into the inside of a donkey jacket in case I lost it but the jacket was too small now and the pockets were filled with space lego people\\they spilled out got under my feet so it was too painful to walk like myself\\a missing treasure map marked a mountain to climb\\which had the same contours as my thumbprint\\which had the same pattern as my dna\\ which was missing \\It was written in lemon \\ only to be seen if  held to sun \\ but it was dark in the cupboard \\ I tried to find the exact [moment] we got there       [In the cupboard] No one could remember we all amnesia’d somnambulant\\ had we been stolen?  stashed ? an ambush of hoydens ~ hijacked? or hibernating\\or just liked cupboards\\it\\was\\all\\   blurry 

Anyway I left the door open                     >

SOME EXAMPLES OF MY WORK BELOW

Through the poetic and raw lens of a neurodiverse filmmaker, A [Cupboard] Full of Tomboys by Jay Farley navigates the intricate intersections of identity, gender, and class. This collection unfolds the journey of an older, working-class non-binary individual. With a cinematic and surreal texture, Jay uses words not only to validate their existence but also to unlock the transformative power of language itself. From the confines of the metaphorical cupboard to the expansive, defiant explorations of a new, queer world, Farley’s poetry challenges binaries, embraces fluidity, and crafts an unflinching celebration of lived authenticity.

 PRAISE for A [Cupboard] Full of Tomboys:

This book is a bursting open of closet doors, a superb non binary encyclopaedia, more vital ammunition for the queer canon.

— Joelle Taylor

 Dazzling, sprawling, gasping — these changeling poems fly at us, each a carnival rooted in poetry’s sense of creation and revolution. At their heart is an astonishing polyvocal experiment; a swirling crown that dares us to listen to “the sea inside” and the hidden geometries of worlds that land as softly as dandelion seeds, as powerfully as hurricanes.

— Andre Bagoo

 A fast-moving stream of brilliance singing with the rhythms of Liverpool’s streets and the heart-strings of explosively lived experience.

— Chris McCabe

 

 

Poetry/music/dance films I directed, co directed and/or shot

Narative and Documentary films I co directed and/or shot as a DP