A domestic task is missed.
A SHORT FILM BY ALEC BOWMAN_CLARKE
REFUSE
A recently widowed woman misses bin day and uses an empty neighbour’s bin. A council complaint turns private grief into a civic project nobody asked for.
CONTROLLED PROJECT RECORD
STATUS: PRE-PRODUCTION
LOCATION: ISLE OF BUTE / SCOTLAND
FORMAT: NARRATIVE SHORT
ORIGINATING MATERIAL: SCREENPLAY + PRODUCTION DESIGN
STATUS: PRE-PRODUCTION
LOCATION: ISLE OF BUTE / SCOTLAND
FORMAT: NARRATIVE SHORT
ORIGINATING MATERIAL: SCREENPLAY + PRODUCTION DESIGN
THE COMPLAINT
Private grief enters the public realm.
The starting problem is tiny: bin day has been missed. An empty neighbouring bin is available. It should solve itself.
Instead, somebody complains. Once the matter has entered a system, the system needs a record, a position and a person responsible for the position.
The escalation is administrative, not spectacular. A woman trying to get through the week becomes the subject of a civic process whose certainty grows faster than its usefulness.
PROCEDURAL CHAIN
Four ordinary things.
A practical solution belongs to somebody else.
The act acquires an official witness.
Procedure begins generating its own need to continue.
DEVELOPMENT MATERIALS
The application becomes part of the world.
GRAYHARBOUR INDUSTRIES
WASTE SERVICES DIVISION
PUBLIC COPY · REF. GWS/26/112
REFUSE
A short film by ALEC BOWMAN_CLARKE
Ever put a bin bag that won’t fit in your bin into someone else’s bin and hoped nobody noticed? Elaine Fraser has. Sadly for her, Grayharbour Waste Services did notice.
A nuisance complaint becomes a civic horror.
A grey Scottish street. Wheelie bins. Wet pavement. Gulls.
A black bin with a painted 12 sits there, lid closed.
Beside it, a second black bin. Number 14 painted on the front.
House 14 looks empty. Curtains drawn. Garden overgrown. No car.
A COUNCIL VAN pulls up.
ELAINE
I’m here about the nuisance call.
GREG
We’ve had reports of bin intrusion.
PRODUCTION STATUS
REFUSE remains in pre-production. Development material exists to make the film easier to understand, cast and make. The application language stays because it belongs to the film’s world; abandoned funding mechanics do not.
GRAYHARBOUR INDUSTRIES DOES NOT CURRENTLY ACCEPT APPEALS THROUGH THIS WEBSITE