hello@letsmakesomethingnice.com
In early November 2023, Charli’s waters broke unexpectedly, 3 months ahead of the due date. They managed to keep baby Lyra in the belly for 6 weeks, and she arrived into the world on Christmas Eve.
Lyra has a rare chromosome syndrome and so we paused Faded Neon for a year whilst we turned our full attention to our gorgeously unique daughter and settled into our lives as her parents.
In the background we mulled over our ambitions for the business and how we could refine things to best serve them, which has eventually taken form as Something Nice. By focusing on documentary films and podcasts, we feel we can better serve the urgent task of getting these lesser seen stories out into the world.
Whilst Faded Neon the business will become Something Nice, we will keep Faded Neon alive as a moniker for when creating our strange and curious worlds for music videos and art films.
We had our first event on November 26th 2023, Upstairs atThe Ritzy!
5 films reflect 5 points of view regarding the inhumane impacts of offshore refugee processing centres, the consequences of dispossession, incarceration and colonial power in the contemporary world. Explored through the lens of Australia's infamous refugee policies and the lived experience of those effected by it, these poignant, powerful and personal films resonate with current UK attitudes, foreshadowing the human impact of ‘stopping the boats’.
Produced by Refugee Art Project, curated by Faded Neon Films & T A P E collective for London Migration Festival.
SHORT FILMS
Take it Easy, by MN
Cleaning In Progress, by Miream Salameh
Zeinab by Zeinab Mir
Neverending, by Tabz
Border Farce, by Safdar Ahmed, Kazem Kazemi, Alia Ardon
PANEL
Melissa-Kelly Franklin
Sophie Lucas
Jumanah Bawazir
Samin Saadat
NOVEMBER 2023
As our year on Peckham Rise comes to a close we wanted to reflect on some of our greatest achievements thanks to the nurturing and immense support we have received from this I Like Networking and Market Peckham scheme.
Thanks to Jade Coles we were able to tighten up our business plan and build a roadmap to where we wanted to be in five years. Running a business part time alongside day jobs can mean everything becomes reactive, and Jade’s incredible insight helped us see the power of setting up goals and brainstorming all possible opportunities to monetise our services and assets.
From getting the honour to hear from and chat with Chloë Downes we’ve started to implement more celebration of our achievements and milestones, recognising that whilst we are a tiny business we are still making steps to achieve some change in our corner of the industry and we should take a moment to reflect on that work.
Charli being paired with mentor Winnie Imara has been monumental in helping us to step out more, and identify that we want to build more than a business, we want to nurture a community, start important conversations, and help like minded people connect. Through the gentle power that Winnie is, she helped Charli identify that her decade of experience in her day job working in events could be a great way to build our network and support our mission to champion underrepresented voices. We have our first event this November 26th Upstairs at The Ritzy partnering with Refugee Art Project, Tape Collective, Migration Festival and writer/director Melissa-Kelly Franklin, showcasing a powerful collection of short films reflecting on the inhumane impacts of offshore refugee processing centres, the consequences of dispossession, incarceration and colonial power in the contemporary world. Explored through the lens of Australia's infamous refugee policies and the lived experience of those effected by it, these poignant, powerful and personal films resonate with current UK attitudes, foreshadowing the human impact of ‘stopping the boats’.
Through I Like Networking’s mentorship on the power of networking we’ve prioritised more time and energy into stepping out and meeting new people. From doing so we’ve recently partnered with some amazing local creatives on some new projects we look forward to announcing soon.
There have been so many other workshops and opportunities thanks to this scheme, all which have given us the tools and grounding we needed to keep our business growing. Perhaps one of the most powerful aspects has been to connect with such a diverse and inspiring cohort through Peckham Rise, and growing together over this past year has been a life changing experience.
It’s coming to close just months before Toby and Charli start a new adventure becoming parents with their daughter arriving in early February next year. This is something that would have made us extremely terrified for our careers, but since building and nurturing Faded Neon Films we are more confident every day that there is a new way to participate in this industry that can be part time, accessible, inclusive, and just as powerful.
Big love to Market Peckham for giving us a home for this past year, to I Like Networking for supporting us in this transformation, to TAPE Collective for being a pillar of our community and support since day one, and to all of you who have been following our journey and coming along for the ride. This is just the beginning x