Artist: James Lees

Synopsis:
Human beings have always had a complex relationship to tanning—from the lead-powdered faces of Elizabethan England, through to the plucked and preened vision of ’80s beachside beauty, to the fake-bake culture of today’s reality TV. An extreme, infomercial-inspired examination of the beauty phenomenon.

Bio:
After a childhood in theatre James transferred his skills to film, shooting his very first short – The Apology Line – to much acclaim and numerous best film awards, a European Film Academy Award nomination and official selection at over 50 festivals worldwide including Sundance. Two more award winning short films followed (Pockets was named one of the top ten short documentaries ever made by the UK’s Channel 4) after which he signed to the prestigious Warp Films. This soon led to representation in the States with Doomsday Entertainment and music videos for some of the world’s biggest and most respected artists with his various videos for OneRepublic, Justin Bieber, Lil Dicky and Bloc Party et al amassing 3 billion views collectively. In advertising James has helmed extensive commercial and is a regular contributor to the fashion, art and culture online platform Nowness. Ending, James’ latest short film funded by Creative Scotland and Creative England is being released in 2017 as James develops his first feature for production.

Degrees of Doneness was Screened at VAEFF 2017 as part of “Beauty, Sex & Shame“program