BACONS HISTORIES: Study for a Portrait explores the influence of the Histories on Francis Bacon’s painting, from Greek drama and Egyptian sculpture to T. S. Eliot and Shakespeare. The film includes previously unpublished interviews with Francis Bacon recorded and provided by David Sylvester.

A cinematic artwork in 8-parts starring Francis Bacon, David Sylvester, Jeremy Irons, Sinéad Cusack, John Gielgud, Alec Guinness and Richard Burton. Written and directed by Martha Parsey. Produced by MPHQ Pictures.

50 minutes. Shot on location in Greece, Paris, London, Spain, Egypt, South Africa and Germany.

Languages: English, French, Greek, German and Russian with English subtitles.

SHAKESPEARE’S GHOST is a cinematic conversation between Martha Parsey and Ken McMullen, director of HAMLET WITHIN, on the creation, enduring appeal and legacy of the Shakespearean myth.

Appeared in the film Hamlet Within, directed by Ken McMullen, starring Ian McKellen, John Shrapnel, Ben Turner, Lex Shrapnel, Gabriella Wright, Jacques Derrida and Dominique Pinon. Produced by Art Cinema, Scape Cinema and Twenty One Productions.
Hamlet Within is a radical investigation into the myth of Hamlet, its origins and its enduring appeal across cultures and systems of beliefs. Drawing on the post-modernist movements in Art, History, Philosophy and Psychoanalysis the work asks the question ‘why Hamlet?’ and indeed ‘why now?’.

20 minute film. Written and directed by Martha Parsey.

Filmed in Paris at the Francis Bacon retrospective exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, the film accompanies the curator and close friend of Bacon, David Sylvester, as he hangs the exhibition. Previously unpublished interviews with Francis Bacon by David Sylvester accompany us through the exhibition as Francis Bacon describes in his own words the works that make up his life’s work. In Paris, the city where as a young man Francis Bacon first decided to paint, and David Sylvester, also as a young man first started to write on art, this is a testament to their lasting friendship and hails Bacon as one of the most important painters of our time.

Directed and produced documentary film ‘Model and Artist; Henrietta Moraes and Francis Bacon’. Screened at the ICA, Centre Pompidou Paris and Haus der Kunst Munich.

Meeting Francis Bacon in London in the Sixties, Henrietta Moraes became his most frequently female subject in both portraits and as the model for his larger works. Filmed during the Francis Bacon exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery, London, Henrietta recalls her impression of the artist. Intercut with archive footage of Bacon in interview, these interviews form a final dialogue between artist and model.

Appeared in the film ‘Lumen de Lumine’ 2001, directed by Ken McMullen and screened at Atlantis Gallery, London, Tshingh University Beijing, Complesso del Vittoriano Rome, Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneva, Gulbenkian Gallery Lisbon, and P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Centre NY.

Shot on location in Particle Accelerator Number One, CERN, Geneva. Lumen de Lumine is a meditation on solitude. A motion picture playing with quantum theory, the nature of light and near-miss particle collisions.

Wrote and directed the 16mm short film ‘Façade’ at the Berlin Film Academy, 1995. Screened at the Riverside Studio London, receiving a special recognition at the Ebensee Short Film Festival.
Directed short film ‘Samsa’s Dream’ 1994 for an Oxford University theatre production of Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’ at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Directed short film ‘Major/Minor’ 1993, 16mm at the London College of Printing.
Animated and shot film ‘Frieze of Life’ 1992 at Central St Martins College of Art.

Appeared as an actress in the following productions:

‘Crossbow’ 1987 film. France/UK/USA with Morgan Sheppard and Brian Blessed.
‘Still Dark’. UK film 1987.
‘Domestic Bliss’ Channel 4 film 1986.
‘The Women’ at the Old Vic Theatre with Suzanna York.
‘Jury’. BBC TV Series
‘Behind the Bike Sheds’. 1985 Series 1 and 2 of the Yorkshire TV children’s series.
‘Just Maths’. BBC Radio series.
‘The Overgrown Path’ written by Robert Holman, performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London.
‘1984’ film with John Hurt, Richard Burton, Cyril Cusack, Suzanna Hamilton.
‘Supergirl’ film with Faye Dunnaway, Helen Slater, Peter O’Toole, Peter Cook and Mia Farrow.
‘Partners in Crime’ 1984 ITV Series.
‘Richard III’ Royal Shakespeare Company Production with Sir Anthony Sher and Brian Blessed.
‘Memoirs of a Survivor’ film 1981 with Julie Christie.
‘A Tale of Two Cities’ film 1980 with Chris Sarandon, Peter Cushing, Kenneth More, Dame Flora Robson, David Suchet, Nigel Hawthorne