 | This article contains promotional content .(May 2023) |
Raine Allen-Miller | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 1989 (age 35) Manchester, England |
| Years active | 2014–present |
| Spouse | Freddie Waters (m. 2023) |
| Website | www |
Raine Allen-Miller (born September 1989) is a British film director and writer. Her first feature film, Rye Lane , was released in 2023.
Born in Manchester, Allen-Miller spent her early childhood in Moss Side, a southern inner-city area. She has two younger sisters and one younger brother. Her mother worked in prisons teaching art and created centres to support pupils excluded from schools. Her mother would frequently take her to Blockbuster which fueled her love for films. [1]
When she was 12 years old, Allen-Miller moved to Brixton, South London, with her father. She considers her father a source of inspiration who encouraged her to pursue her passions. [2] Upon arriving in London, Allen-Miller's grandmother took her to Brixton Market to connect with her heritage and get "Jamaican spice or plantain or an Afro comb". [3] Allen-Miller would put on one-man shows as a child, recreating the musical Annie for her family. [4]
Allen-Miller attended the BRIT School in Croydon where she studied art. She began her studies in Illustration at Camberwell College of Arts, but dropped out. [5]
Allen-Miller worked as an agent for artists and photographers, and then in art-buying and creative production. She left her job to form a creative duo with school friend and copywriter Lisa Turner-Wray, submitting portfolios to agencies and landing their first advertising gig with Anomaly in October 2014. [6] This was followed by further gigs with Saatchi & Saatchi and Mother.
She directed her first music video for Salute's "Storm" in the aftermath of the 2016 EU referendum and made it a celebration of immigration. This was followed by Denai Moore's "Trickle" in 2017 as well as Allen-Miller's first short film Jerk in 2018, about an older man from the Windrush generation. [7] She also worked on campaigns for ASOS, the Tate Modern, and Squarespace, [8] and on a workshop for the Creative Circle Foundation. [9] She was named a 2021 Screen International Star of Tomorrow. [10]
Despite having mixed feelings on the genre, Allen-Miller's first feature film Rye Lane (2023) is a romantic comedy drama set in Peckham, south London. The project came about through Jerk, where she met the BBC Film producer Eva Yates. Yates then recommended Allen-Miller to be the director for writers Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia's screenplay, originally set in Camden. According to Allen-Miller, in addition to its two main characters, Dom (David Jonsson) and Livewire Yas (Vivian Oparah), the film's setting should also be considered a character. She called it "a love letter to South London". [11]
"I know Peckham and Brixton so well that I had to shoot it there. I wanted to elevate these places and put them on a plinth. They have so much soul and depth. When we were filming, so many people came over and asked, 'You shooting EastEnders?’ They were so excited that we were there. That is one of the things I love about south London. You can be walking down Rye Lane and see someone carrying a trolley full of tins of beans with a dog just sitting there. It's that spirit." [12]
The film opened at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim. [13] At the British Independent Film Awards 2023 the film was nominated for Best British Independent Film with Allen-Miller being nominated for Best Director. Actor Colin Firth has a cameo in the film. [14] The film's production company Searchlight planned for a straight-to-streaming US release. [3]
As of March 2023, Allen-Miller is writing another film and developing a television show. She has stated that she does not expect to return to the rom-com genre any time soon. [1] She also has a heist film in development. [10]
Allen-Miller considers British director Steve McQueen to be her "biggest hero", [3] and also mentioned Swedish director Roy Andersson as an influence of hers. [11] In 2017, she said, "I am really inspired by Jean-Paul Goude, Guy Bourdin and interior design throughout history. Art department is something I find really interesting because I think you can tell a story with an environment." [2] She considers Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese as prominent influences, as well as the films Beverly Hills Cop and Pretty Woman . [1]
For her debut feature film, Rye Lane, Allen-Miller wanted the female lead to be funny, and the world to feel more elevated and dreamlike. [15] She pulled a reference from the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show when framing wide shots close to actors' faces without breaking the fourth wall, which cinematographer Olan Collardy called the "Peep shot". [3]
In December 2023, Allen-Miller married fellow filmmaker Freddie Waters at Lambeth Town Hall followed by a reception at the Camberwell Arms. [16]
Camberwell is an area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, 2+3⁄4 miles southeast of Charing Cross.
Dulwich is an area in south London, England. The settlement is mostly in the London Borough of Southwark, with parts in the London Borough of Lambeth, and consists of Dulwich Village, East Dulwich, West Dulwich, and the Southwark half of Herne Hill. Dulwich lies in a valley between the neighbouring districts of Camberwell, Crystal Palace, Denmark Hill, Forest Hill, Peckham, Sydenham Hill, and Tulse Hill.
Peckham is a district in south-east London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is 3.5 miles (5.6 km) south-east of Charing Cross. At the 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720.
The South London line is a railway line in inner south London, England. The initial steam passenger service on the route was established by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR) on 1 May 1867 when the central London terminal stations of Victoria and London Bridge were connected to the inner south London suburbs of Battersea, Clapham, Brixton, Camberwell and Peckham. A pioneer of overhead electric traction, most of the line was built on high level viaducts and was marketed as the South London Elevated Electric Railway in the early part of the 20th century. The electric service was popular, with four trains per hour and 12 million passengers in 1920. Between Wandsworth Road and Peckham Rye the route ran parallel to another set of tracks. Prior to 1923, both lines from Wandsworth Road to East Brixton were owned by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) and the lines from East Brixton to Peckham Rye were owned by the LBSCR. The southern Atlantic lines were operated by the LBSCR and the northern Chatham lines were operated by the LCDR.
East Dulwich is an area of South East London, England in the London Borough of Southwark. It forms the eastern part of Dulwich, with Peckham to the east and Camberwell to the north. East Dulwich is home to the Dog Kennel Hill statue. This South London suburb was first developed in the nineteenth century on land owned by the College of God's Gift.
Camberwell was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in south London, England. Camberwell was an ancient parish in the county of Surrey, governed by an administrative vestry from 1674. The parish was included in the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855 and became part of the County of London in 1889. The parish of Camberwell became a metropolitan borough in 1900, following the London Government Act 1899, with the parish vestry replaced by a borough council. In 1965 the borough was abolished and its former area became part of the London Borough of Southwark in Greater London.
Brixton railway station is a commuter railway station in Brixton, South London, UK. It is on the Chatham Main Line, 3 miles 14 chains (5.1 km) down the line from London Victoria. Trains are operated by Southeastern. The typical service is one train every 15 minutes in both directions, from Victoria to Orpington via Bromley South.
Nunhead is a suburb in the London Borough of Southwark, England. It is an inner-city suburb located 4 miles (6.4 km) southeast of Charing Cross. It is the location of the 52-acre (0.21 km2) Nunhead Cemetery. Nunhead has traditionally been a working-class area and, with the adjacent neighbourhoods, is currently going through a lengthy process of gentrification. Nunhead is the location of several underground reservoirs, built by the Southwark and Vauxhall Waterworks Company.
Camberwell and Peckham was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 1997 creation until its abolition for the 2024 general election by Harriet Harman of the Labour Party. Harman had served for the previous constituency of Peckham since 1982. She is a former cabinet minister and the "Mother of the House of Commons", having the longest record of continuous service of any female MP.
Peckham is a borough constituency in South London which returns one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Elections are held using the first-past-the-post voting system.
Peckham Rye is an open space and road in the London Borough of Southwark, London, England. The roughly triangular open space lies to the south of Peckham and consists of two contiguous areas, Peckham Rye Common to the north and Peckham Rye Park to the south. The road forms the western and eastern perimeter of the open space.
Lambeth was a constituency 1832—1885 loosely equivalent in area to the later administrative units: the London Borough of Lambeth and the south-west and centre of the London Borough of Southwark. It returned two members of parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by the bloc vote version of the first-past-the-post system.
The A202 is a primary A road in London. It runs from New Cross Gate to London Victoria station. A section of the route forms a part of the London Inner Ring Road between Vauxhall and Victoria, known as Vauxhall Bridge Road.
Elections for Southwark Council were held on 6 May 2010. The 2010 General Election and other local elections took place on the same day.
Dorothea Smartt FRSL is an English-born poet of Barbadian descent.
Vivian Nneka O. Oparah is a British actress and musician. For her performance in the film Rye Lane (2023), she won a British Independent Film Award and received a British Academy Film Award nomination. On television, she is known for her roles in the BBC Three Doctor Who spin-off Class (2016) and the Amazon Prime series Dead Hot (2024).
Nathan David Bryon is a British actor, author, and screenwriter. He gained prominence through his roles as Jamie Bennett in the BBC Three sitcom Some Girls (2012–2014) and Joey Ellis in the ITV sitcom Benidorm (2016–2018).
The election for Southwark London Borough Council took place on 3 May 2018, the same day as for other London Boroughs. All 63 seats were up for election.
Rye Lane is a 2023 British romantic comedy film directed by Raine Allen-Miller in her feature directorial debut, from a screenplay by Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia. Set in the South London areas of Peckham and Brixton, the film is titled after the real-life Rye Lane Market. It stars David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah as two strangers who have a chance encounter, after having both been through recent breakups, and spend the day getting to know each other.
David Jonsson is a British actor and writer. He began his career on the West End. On television, he is known for his role in the BBC Two and HBO series Industry (2020–2022). For his performance in the film Rye Lane (2023), he earned a British Independent Film Award nomination. His other films include Alien: Romulus (2024).
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