Film phase:Completed
SYNOPSIS
The Callers combines intimate documentary testimony with imagined creative scenes to tell the anonymous stories of those who have called England’s oldest LGBTQ+ phone helpline since it opened in 1974. Callers seek guidance on everything from where to find the nearest leather bar to how to come out, navigate an open relationship, impress a new lover or mend a broken heart. Together with the listening volunteers who answer the phones, they imagine the outcome they dream of.
The Callers was supported through our QUEER FUTURES program.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Lindsey Dryden (she/her) is an Emmy-winning filmmaker from the UK and based in Austin, TX. She directed the feature documentary Lost And Sound (2012, SXSW) which was nominated Best Female-Directed Film at Sheffield DocFest. She produced Sundance Special Jury Award-winning Unrest (2017, PBS/Netflix) and Emmy-winning Trans In America (2019, them), and Executive Produced Ahead Of The Curve (2020, Starz/Netflix). She is a 2024 Concordia Fellow, a 2022 Sundance Documentary Producing Fellow, and is a member of AMPAS, BAFTA, and QueerDoc, and a proud co-founder of FWD-Doc (Filmmakers with Disabilities).
ABOUT THE PRODUCERS
Colleen Cassingham (she/her) is a Producer at Multitude Films focused on politically committed artful nonfiction. Most recently, she produced the IDA Awards-nominated shorts collection QUEER FUTURES (CPH:DOX 2023), Executive Produced by J Wortham. Her past credits include Co-Producer on It’s Only Life After All (Sundance 2023), and Associate Producer on Pray Away (Tribeca 2020), Through Our Eyes: Apart (Provincetown 2020), Call Center Blues (SXSW 2020), Always In Season (Sundance 2019), The Feeling Of Being Watched (Tribeca 2018), and Love The Sinner (Tribeca 2017) which were distributed by Netflix, Topic, HBOMax, POV, and Independent Lens. Colleen’s directorial debut short From Damascus To Chicago was broadcast on POV in 2017 and was an Editor’s Pick at The Atlantic. She is a 2023-2024 Sundance Producing Fellow, selected for her role producing Reid Davenport’s second feature doc Life After. She is also a 2023-2024 Impact Partners Producing Fellow, and was a VC Sony 2021 Mentor at The Video Consortium, a 2019 Points North Fellow, and a 2017–2018 UnionDocs Collaborative Studio fellow. Outside of Multitude Films, she is independently producing Casey Carter’s Sundance-supported debut feature, To Use A Mountain.
Samantha Steele (she/her) is a production manager and producer for Little by Little Films based between London, UK and Marseille, France. She has worked across documentaries and digital projects for Al Jazeera, CNBC and Facebook, and films for Channel 4. Her experience also includes development, and working across feature documentaries and short-films commissioned by the BFI.