"You can win the next war with those"
Skin is a story that follows a man’s inner journey of shame carrying throughout his life for being uncircumcised. Born into a poor white family in South Africa, Laurie often compared himself to his black friends in his neighbourhood, who like him were all uncirumcised. He always felt that he was never good enough.
Years later, Laurie relocated to Australia and had a successful career, bought a house and settled down with his wife and daughter. Despite the beautiful portrait of his life on the outset, Laurie continued to struggle with his sexual identity. The ghosts of shame and guilt since childhood continued to torment him. The extra skin that he still carried weighed down on him like a ton of bricks.
As a filmmaker, I am particularly interested in stories about people on a journey of self discovery towards finding their true selves and taking ownership of their lives. Through interviews and stylised visual metaphor for his journey, Skin explores how Laurie attempted to deal with his inner demons as he opens up about his life and his inner struggles.
Director & Editor: Derek Ho
Camera & Sound: Lauren Beck & Ran Li
Drone: Derek Ho
Music Composer: Ben Yap
Production Manager: Albert Ong
Production Parameters: Half Day Shoot, 4 days Edit
Victoria College of The Arts 2018
Themes: Identity, LGBT, Mental Health, Shame
