What is the film about?

The early 1800s were a depressing place for most, but here was a woman willing to fight back…with a bit of mild cannibalism. A Dearly Bought Kiss was the 1837 newspaper headline reporting on the case of “Saverland vs Newton”- a historic case of sexual harassment in which the judge and jury ruled in favour of the victim, a young woman who bit the nose off the offender in self-defence. It is considered a forerunner in legal history.

What influenced it?

Trashy reality TV, Gemma Collins, Paula Rego, medieval illuminated manuscripts, Anthony Browne, the pre Raphaelites, R Crumb & Aline Kominski, Daniel Clowes.

A little background information...

I stumbled upon the story whilst going down a Wikipedia wormhole years ago, and then ‘history cool kids’ (an amazing insta account) reminded me of it again. I immediately thought it would make a brilliant micro short film, and it had the perfect mix of gore, history and funny to fit my animation/illustration style. Plus a slightly unhinged but bad ass female character at it’s centre.

How was the film made?

I made it very quickly over about 3 weeks, and it was all designed in photoshop and animated in flash. The cherry on the cake was working with Kirk at dogbotic for sound and music. They were as excited about the project as me, and did such cool and original design for the film, it really brought it to life, they even convinced me to do the VO myself!