Director's Works
Luke Purdye is a London-based director working across factual and branded. His background in life sciences and a decade working in environment, food and human rights roles before coming to film continue to shape his work, which lives at the intersection of people, place, economy and ecology.
His debut film ‘MAIL ORDER QUEENS’ explored the shadowy and absurd world of beekeeping and was narrated by Anna Savva (The Durrells). It earned recognition from the Student Academy Awards in Los Angeles (Finalist - Documentary), the Grierson Awards (Shortlist - Best Student Documentary), Sunchild (Winner - Best Short Film) and other nominations and selections internationally.
Every loaf tells a story; modern wheat production has achieved vast abundance, but the grains we eat have lost something vital. They’re less nutritious, less flavourful and the way they’re farmed is terrible for soil and wildlife.
This film is the story of The Wheat Project, GAIL's BAkery's mission to reimagine the grain chain, from soil to slice.
“Farmers know best what the soil needs” according to GAIL’s Master Baker Anomorel Ogen “they should grow what the soil wants”.
What’s good for the soil? Growing grain varieties that don’t require any chemical inputs in a soil-positive farming system. Broadly described as ‘heritage grains’, they are tall-strawed (so they outcompete the weeds), inherently varied, therefore resilient. A bit like wine, each year is different. It’s then up to the miller and baker to adapt to the changes year-on-year, to translate what the farmer has grown into loaves that are full of flavour, nutritious and good for the soil.
Helping GAIL’s tell this story was a joy because a) I love nature, soil ecology and food, b) the rare insight and time shared by our contributors Shipton Mill, Luke at TurkDean and Master Baker Ano, and c) their approach to food provenance and ecology appears to be genuine, and that’s rare for large companies with complicated supply chains.
Despite heritage grains' obvious symbolism as a return to tradition in agriculture, GAIL's were keen to portray the project as something new, positive and pioneering. To meet this need, and to provide a counterweight to the earthiness of it all, I spent a lot of time looking for a cue that felt modern and optimistic without feeling overly-promotional or sentimental. I then had a job of work editing the cue to the shape of the narrative structure and pacing – I'm really happy with how it turned out.
From a picture perspective, my DP Sam Finney and I were aiming for something textural and abstracted, with choppy cuts and pacing that built and crescendoed then offered moments to breathe. I think 16mm film stock lends itself well to this, but the tight frames were also a way of working with our minimal lighting budget.
