INVENTING ANNE
Conversations with Dylan's grandmother
Dylan's 95 year old grandmother Anne Swingler could always tell a good story. She entertained everyone who met her with her extraordinary odyssey through the 20th century. She came from the slums of Newcastle to marry into the upper classes, was an ardent socialist with the poshest voice you’ve ever heard, a dreamer, a snob, a self-proclaimed aristocrat whom everyone fell for. Now all alone under constant care in her elegant flat, she’s forgotten most of it, wondering what she really lived and what she imagined. How does she respond as she listens to her own life played back to her, and watches her story played by actors?
Using interviews filmed over 15 years this feature length film cuts between Anne now and re-imagined stories from her life, told in her own voice. Just as she edits, embellishes and romanticises her tales, so does the film, casting actors and using archive to imagine key moments. These stories, already embellished in the telling and retelling, are now imagined by Dylan. The result will be both a fairy tale journey through the 30’s and 40’s and a philosophical look at self invention. Do we define ourselves with our stories, choosing what to keep and what to edit out?