MUSIC VIDEOS FOR JOHNNY FLYNN’S SILLION (2017)

After we made CONTRACTOR 014352, Johnny asked if I’d come up with the ideas and direct all the videos for his 2017 album Sillion. We started off with these big, ambitious plans for a series of linked films with huge, abstract themes… but then the budget and release schedule had other ideas. The women who pick up Lillie in the first film do turn up in the other two, so there’s a bit of a thread between them. Whether anyone’s actually spotted that, I’ve no idea.

RAISING THE DEAD

Starring Lillie Flynn, Ida Flynn and Johnny Flynn
Written, Directed & Produced by Simon Ryninks
Animations by Hanna-Katrina Jedrosz & Phil Davies.
© Transgressive Records

My film for Johnny Flynn’s Raising the Dead was a proper family-and-friends affair - me, Johnny, his sister Lillie, and my wife Hanna-Katrina, who took the photographs you see in the dream sequences. Johnny’s daughter Ida also makes an appearance, even though she was still under one at the time. It’s about a young woman trying to make peace with her grief through a possibly possessed possession. The Independent called it “beautiful,” which was very kind of them.

WANDERING AENGUS

Starring Hanna-Katrina Jedrosz, Gruffudd Glyn
and Johnny Flynn
Written & Directed by Simon Ryninks
Produced by The Milo Wladek Co.
© Transgressive Records

For Wandering Aengus, we wanted to capture the pull of the coast and countryside against the weight of a London life. We filmed in Welsh locations that mean a lot to me, to Johnny, and to my wife Hanna-Katrina, who plays the woman at the centre of the story. Melin Melyn’s Gruff plays her date, while Johnny appears as some kind of spirit. The Sunday Times called it “a cathartic release,” which felt fitting given the landscapes and memories fuelling it.

IN THE DEEPEST

Starring Luke Pierre, Holly Holden and Johnny Flynn
Written & Directed by Simon Ryninks
Produced by Hanna-Katrina Jedrosz and Salomé Fabre
© Transgressive Records

In the Deepest was the last film I made for Sillion, though it was the first one we conceived, born from the ominous sense of dread we were feeling about the state of the world in 2017. It evolved into a story about finding hope in others who see things the same way. NPR called it “a powerful statement on groupthink in the age of fake news.”