'I've always been creative' Kay Mellor’s granddaughter shares how she’s carving her own path

As the granddaughter of the late trailblazing scriptwriter Kay Mellor OBE and the daughter of actress and writer Gaynor Faye, it is perhaps no surprise that Lily has grown up interested in the arts - after all, creativity is in her blood.

With a keen interest in what happens behind the camera, Lily hopes to follow in her family’s footsteps and use film to spark conversation.

“I’ve always been creative”, the 21-year-old confesses.

“Whether it be music, art, or anything in that realm, I’ve found expressing myself through those means to be the most exciting for me.”

In the final year of a filmmaking degree at Kingston University of Arts, Lily is only at the start of her career yet has already begun to forge her own identity as a writer and director.

With an aesthetic she describes as “authentic, gritty, and observational”, she enjoys creating short films that are true to the life of the audience.

Lily said: “I like to create things that feel relatable, even to the extent that you’d never expect to relate to it.

“I think people don’t always put the weird and wonderful things that humans do on screen but I really like to articulate real behaviour. It makes you feel a lot more absorbed into characters and into the world of film.”

Lily’s work so far includes The Weight of Feeling, a seven minute duologue inspired by Lily’s own experience of growing up with undiagnosed ADHD, and Play a Memory, a short film which explores how dementia impacts relationships.

Lily hopes that by addressing these topics in film, she encourages audiences to think more about themselves and their place in the world.

Lily said: “I like to confront people’s self-understanding, not in an aggressive way but more in a way of making people ask questions about themselves and the world around them.

“In order for people to grow we really have to embrace discomfort - that’s the way change happens.”

It’s this motivation that has inspired Lily’s latest project, Codec, a new short film focused on sexual violence in the digital age. The story focuses on Sofie, an 18-year-old who becomes the target of a sexual assault of a virtual reality forum.

The impact of technology on sexual violence is a rising topic of debate as digital developments have created new forms of sexual crimes including ‘deepfaking’, the act of creating an AI-generated sexualised image of someone against their consent, and revenge porn, the act of creating and sharing sexually explicit material of an individual against their consent.

For Lily, Codec will be a chance to investigate the sociological impacts of cyber sexual crime.

Lily said: “We have a lot of representation around the technology but I don’t think people truly understand the psychological repercussions. It’s really important for me to show that.”

Codec will be shot around Leeds in February and Lily then plans to take it to film festivals, and possibly even into schools to educate the next generation.

Lily was first inspired to enter the industry by her family, however she sees modern filmmaking as a “different landscape” now compared to decades ago.

She looks forward to how the Gen Z perspective will change what we see in the industry.

Lily said: “At university, I’m surrounded by such a cohort of creative people and I think it’s really exciting to see.

“While there is a lot of focus now on short form content and AI generated media, there is going to be interesting and engaging cinema to come out of this generation because of how we have consumed media and I’m really excited for it.”

If you’re interested in supporting the funding of Codec, find out more on how to donate here.