MORTAL
Taking inspiration from the Death Positive Movement, artists Ben Faircloth, Eilidh Nicoll, and Mariana Leal have made films reflecting on processing death anxiety, voicing personal grief communally, and queering funerary practice. The films have been developed through discussions with social anthropologist Dr Hannah Rumble.
There’s more about the films and artists below.
Mortal launch events
Please follow this link for information about our launch events.
Mortal online talk
Follow this link to hear the artists talk about their process on this recording of an online Accelerate Session on 6 May 2025.
Ignoring the terrible hum
Ben Faircloth
Ignoring the terrible hum examines attitudes surrounding mortality in the setting of a rural Welsh town. Partly inspired by the writing of American anthropologist Ernest Becker, the film weighs the benefits and plausibility of genuine self-knowledge concerning mortality against my own, natural cynicism and apprehension about the subject.
Ben is a painter, animator and illustrator based in Wales. His work explores absurdity, isolation and anxiety, whilst being rooted in the immediate community and accompanying social issues. He graduated with an MA in Fine Art from Aberystwyth School of Art in 2021 and has exhibited extensively in Wales and Sweden, and directs and animates music videos and animated segments for television and film.
Making it Fit
Mariana Leal
A short documentary film about how the LGBTQIA+ community has been reinventing funerary and remembrance rituals to better support and reflect the way people live in community, and sharing some of the ways in which the members of the Queer community have been instinctively reinventing their grieving and celebration ceremonies for their late loved ones.
Mariana is a Portuguese animator based in London. Her work explores inner worlds and lived experiences through animated materials. She studied animation at the University of the Arts London and has an MA in Film Studies from King’s College London in 2022. She has been working in short form documentary and fictional animation, and compositing for long form film and television.
https://lealanimation.myportfolio.com
Steeping
Eilidh Nicoll
Death Cafes offer a place for strangers to gather and discuss all things mortality. Animated in tea and coffee, Steeping explores the ceremony of the cafe, inviting us to ponder our attitudes towards death and dying and reflect on how a conversation over a cup of something might make broaching the subject a little less terrifying.
Eilidh is a Scottish animator based in London, and her work often has an emphasis on process and exploring personal experiences. She graduated with a BA Animation from Edinburgh College of Art in 2021. Her graduation film, Silvering, won the inaugural Young Scottish Filmmaker Prize and screened at over 40 festivals. She has since worked as an animator for stage, film and television, and information films and music videos.
eilidhnicoll.wixsite.com/animation
Dr Hannah Rumble
Dr Hannah Rumble is an academic, social anthropologist specialising in death, dying and disposal, both human and the more-than-human. Her research has addressed funeral poverty, the natural burial movement, direct cremation, the lived experiences of bereaved people in coroners’ courts and social care settings, as well as young people’s creative responses to death and places of disposal and memory.
Hannah’s most recent research was with the Institute of Crime and Justice Policy Research, Voicing Loss, focused on supporting bereaved people in Coronial investigations and at inquest hearings.
Hannah has co-produced films, art exhibitions and immersive installations with community arts partners, digital designers and filmmakers. She is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath, and an Associate of the Centre for Death and Life Studies at Durham University.
Thanks to:
Kate Woodthorpe at the Centre for Death & Society, Emily Candler at Highgate Cemetery, Janine Marriott at Arnos Vale Cemetery Trust, Dr Brenda Matgijssen at University of Groningen, Prof Erica Borgstrom, Professor of Medical Anthropology & Open Media Fellow at the Open University.