Garry Sykes

Dawn is a mobile hairdresser in a small, working class town in the North East of England. As she talks and tends to her customers, Dawn is plunged into a chatty world of lifestyle-shaming and gentrified expectations, sudden responsibilities and fast-paced change. Through their conversations, Dawn finds each of her customers at their own cross-roads, their own dreams and expectations rooted, for the moment, in the promise of a brand new hairdo.

lXHXN (pronounced however you like) is a non-documentary from the 21st century, a story of self-fulfilling prophecies and vicious circles, addiction narratives and narrative addictions. Composed entirely from footage found on YouTube, it tells the tale of a Disney princess who dared to grow up, and the family and world that swirl around her - and every shining star onwards to the future. It is a question, a prediction and a protest. #freckledfreedom

A surreptitiously filmed conversation between my Dad and my Nana in Ashington, Northumberland, about the age-old British tradition of breaking into royal residences. The conversation is overlaid with Super 8 footage shot by my Grandad in the 1960s and scanned by me after my grandparent's deaths, shots I filmed on an iPhone while retracing the steps of their family visit to London, and a 16mm reel with views of the city centre and Buckingham Palace in the '30s, found in a junk shop I don't even remember when. The contrasting eras of film, as well as relatively recent footage of my family (one of whom is no longer with us), spliced with shots of their much younger selves turn the piece into a short meditation on expectant youth, and the locked gates that most of us meet as we quickly age.

A romantic, violent, life-changing day in the life of eight teenagers.

Dawn is a mobile hairdresser in a small, working class town in the North East of England. As she talks and tends to her customers, Dawn is plunged into a chatty world of lifestyle-shaming and gentrified expectations, sudden responsibilities and fast-paced change. Through their conversations, Dawn finds each of her customers at their own cross-roads, their own dreams and expectations rooted, for the moment, in the promise of a brand new hairdo.

Dawn is a mobile hairdresser in a small, working class town in the North East of England. As she talks and tends to her customers, Dawn is plunged into a chatty world of lifestyle-shaming and gentrified expectations, sudden responsibilities and fast-paced change. Through their conversations, Dawn finds each of her customers at their own cross-roads, their own dreams and expectations rooted, for the moment, in the promise of a brand new hairdo.

lXHXN (pronounced however you like) is a non-documentary from the 21st century, a story of self-fulfilling prophecies and vicious circles, addiction narratives and narrative addictions. Composed entirely from footage found on YouTube, it tells the tale of a Disney princess who dared to grow up, and the family and world that swirl around her - and every shining star onwards to the future. It is a question, a prediction and a protest. #freckledfreedom

lXHXN (pronounced however you like) is a non-documentary from the 21st century, a story of self-fulfilling prophecies and vicious circles, addiction narratives and narrative addictions. Composed entirely from footage found on YouTube, it tells the tale of a Disney princess who dared to grow up, and the family and world that swirl around her - and every shining star onwards to the future. It is a question, a prediction and a protest. #freckledfreedom

lXHXN (pronounced however you like) is a non-documentary from the 21st century, a story of self-fulfilling prophecies and vicious circles, addiction narratives and narrative addictions. Composed entirely from footage found on YouTube, it tells the tale of a Disney princess who dared to grow up, and the family and world that swirl around her - and every shining star onwards to the future. It is a question, a prediction and a protest. #freckledfreedom

A surreptitiously filmed conversation between my Dad and my Nana in Ashington, Northumberland, about the age-old British tradition of breaking into royal residences. The conversation is overlaid with Super 8 footage shot by my Grandad in the 1960s and scanned by me after my grandparent's deaths, shots I filmed on an iPhone while retracing the steps of their family visit to London, and a 16mm reel with views of the city centre and Buckingham Palace in the '30s, found in a junk shop I don't even remember when. The contrasting eras of film, as well as relatively recent footage of my family (one of whom is no longer with us), spliced with shots of their much younger selves turn the piece into a short meditation on expectant youth, and the locked gates that most of us meet as we quickly age.

A romantic, violent, life-changing day in the life of eight teenagers.

A romantic, violent, life-changing day in the life of eight teenagers.