Fact can often be spookier
than fiction, and this is proved by Siren Spirits, four ghost stories base on
personal experiences
HUNGRY for original drama by Asian and Black writers, Siren Spirits was conceived to showcase the wealth of non-white filmmaking talent out there.
The idea was born in 1991 to make Black and Asian ghost stories. It soon spread by word of mouth and Leda Serene, the production company commissioned to make them, received over 200 scripts.
"The aim of the project was to explore what we called the 'shadow side', to express the fears and taboos behind the mask that we present to the outside world." Explains Suman Bhuchar, who works for Leda Serene.
The result is four short films based around the common theme of the supernatural. Fearing repeats of the film 'Ghost', I went along to see what they had to offer. I needn't have worried. The films all had an original twist of their own.
"One of the major challenges we faced was convincing some writers that we were not looking for simple ghost stories," laughs Suman, "that what we were about was the use of the extraordinary and the fantastic as a way of expressing something intangible about human nature."
