{{Short description|English filmmaker, artist and film critic (born 1991)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}} {{Use British English|date=May 2015}} {{Infobox person | name = Charlie Shackleton | image = Charlie Shackleton at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival (cropped).jpg | alt = Shackleton at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival | caption = Shackleton at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1991|8|15|df=y}} | birth_place = London, England | occupation = {{hlist|Filmmaker|multimedia artist|film critic}} }} '''Charlie Shackleton''' (formerly '''Charlie Lyne'''; born 15 August 1991) is an English filmmaker, multimedia artist, and film critic. He has made several films, including ''Beyond Clueless,'' ''Fear Itself'', and the 2023 protest film ''Paint Drying'', as well as the multimedia performance piece ''As Mine Exactly''.
== Early life == Charlie Shackleton was born on 15 August 1991, at St Mary's Hospital in London, raised by his mother, Jane Shackleton. He details in his piece ''As Mine Exactly'' how their relationship evolved after she developed epilepsy when he was a child.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Watch and Listen: Charlie Shackleton's "As Mine Exactly" |url=https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/watch-and-listen-charlie-shackleton-s-as-mine-exactly |access-date=3 December 2022 |website=MUBI |date=17 November 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=B |first=Milton Guillen |date=21 March 2022 |title=Strengthening Bonds: An Interview with Charlie Shackleton |url=https://immerse.news/strengthening-bonds-an-interview-with-charlie-shackleton-38004cb143e4 |access-date=3 December 2022 |website=Medium |language=en}}</ref> At the time, Shackleton videotaped several of her seizures at the request of her medical team.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />
== Career == Shackleton established the movie blog Ultra Culture in 2008, at the age of 16. In 2010, Shackleton joined the BBC programme ''Film 2010'', after being approached by host Claudia Winkleman on Twitter. Shackleton left the show after one season.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.idolmag.co.uk/arts/charlie-lyne-ultra-culture/ |title=''Charlie Lyne - Ultra Culture'' |publisher=IDOL Magazine |accessdate=9 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160915234601/http://www.idolmag.co.uk/arts/charlie-lyne-ultra-culture/ |archive-date=15 September 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He continues to write film criticism as a regular contributor to ''Sight & Sound''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/people/charlie-shackleton |title=''Charlie Shackleton'' |publisher=BFI |accessdate=22 September 2022}}</ref>
His debut film ''Beyond Clueless'' premiered at SXSW in 2014. The film, an essayistic exploration of nineties teen movies narrated by Fairuza Balk, was crowdfunded through Kickstarter.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://schedule.sxsw.com/2014/events/event_FS15225 |title=''Beyond Clueless'' |publisher=South by Southwest |accessdate=13 September 2015}}</ref> His second, ''Fear Itself'', debuted on the BBC iPlayer in October 2015. Like his debut, it utilised existing film footage and original narration, this time exploring the horror genre.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2015/42/fear-itself-iplayer |title=''BBC - Fear Itself - Media Centre'' |publisher=BBC |accessdate=9 September 2016}}</ref>
In 2016, Shackleton again took to Kickstarter to crowdfund ''Paint Drying'', a 607-minute film of white paint drying on a brick wall<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/charlielyne/make-the-censors-watch-paint-drying |title=''Make the Censors Watch Paint Drying'' |date=27 January 2016 |publisher=Kickstarter |accessdate=9 September 2016}}</ref> to be submitted to the British Board of Film Classification in a protest against censorship and mandatory classification for films released in the UK.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/42l19x/im_making_the_uks_film_censorship_board_watch/ |title=''I'm making the UK's film censorship board watch paint dry, for ten hours, starting right now! AMA.'' |date=25 January 2016 |publisher=Reddit |accessdate=9 September 2016}}</ref> On 26 January 2016, ''Paint Drying'' was given a U rating for 'no material likely to offend or harm'.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/11/19/a-filmmaker-is-trolling-the-british-film-board-with-an-unbelievably-long-movie-of-paint-drying/ |title=''A filmmaker trolled the British film board with an unbelievably long movie of paint drying'' |newspaper=The Washington Post |accessdate=9 September 2016}}</ref> In 2018 he founded the production company LOOP with filmmakers Antony Ing and Catherine Bray. The same year they offered three 'no-strings-attached' filmmaker grants of £5,000, which were awarded to Jamie Janković, Grace Lee, and John Ogunmuyiwa. Loop will not retain any copyright or ownership of the films.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.screendaily.com/news/inaugural-loop-fund-awards-5000-each-to-three-uk-filmmakers-/5130701.article |title=''Inaugural Loop Fund awards £5,000 each to three UK filmmakers'' |publisher=Screen International |accessdate=22 September 2022}}</ref>thumb|Shackleton in 2022 Through Loop, Shackleton continued to direct and produce features and shorts in the essay film format. His short documentaries ''Fish Story'' and ''Lasting Marks'', published through ''The Guardian'', focused on the family history of film critic Caspar Salmon<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/ng-interactive/2017/jun/30/fish-story-anglesey-video-fish-surnames |title=''Fish Story'' |work=The Guardian |date=30 June 2017 |accessdate=22 September 2022 |last1=Lyne |first1=Charlie |last2=Phillips |first2=Charlie |last3=Poulton |first3=Lindsay }}</ref> and the British police's investigation into same-sex male sadomasochism in the 1980s,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/apr/12/lasting-marks-on-trial-for-sadomasochism-in-thatchers-britain |title=''Lasting Marks: on trial for sadomasochism in Thatcher's Britain'' |work=The Guardian |date=12 April 2019 |accessdate=22 September 2022 |last1=Phillips |first1=Charlie }}</ref> respectively. ''Lasting Marks'' was a co-production with documentarian Laura Poitras's company Field of Vision, and based on Shackleton's own archival research.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://directorsnotes.com/2019/03/25/charlie-lyne-lasting-marks/ |title=''Charlie Lyne Reexamines an Important Part of LGBT History in Operation Spanner Documentary 'Lasting Marks''' |date=25 March 2019 |publisher=Directors Notes |accessdate=22 September 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2019/05/20/lasting-marks/ |title=''Lasting Marks'' |publisher=Short of the Week |accessdate=22 September 2022}}</ref> He worked with Ross Sutherland on the essay film ''Stand By for Tape Back-Up'', which used the degrading quality of VHS tapes to explore familial grief,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/stand-by-tape-back-up-827731/ |title='''Stand By for Tape Back-Up': Fantastic Fest Review'' |date=28 September 2015 |publisher=The Hollywood Reporter |accessdate=22 September 2022}}</ref> and was a creative consultant on Kitty Green's ''The Assistant''. In 2021 and 2022 respectively he began touring two new projects: ''The Afterlight'', another essay film which exists as a single print which will degrade with each showing,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/afterlight-film-immortals-en-route-oblivion |title=''The Afterlight: a film of immortals en route to oblivion'' |date=July 2022 |publisher=BFI |accessdate=22 September 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/oct/07/film-lost-netflix-the-afterlight-london-film-fesitval-digital-media |title=''I made a film that's designed to be lost – and that's not so different from Netflix'' |work=The Guardian |date=7 October 2021 |accessdate=22 September 2022}}</ref> and ''As Mine Exactly'', a virtual reality performance piece about his mother's experiences with epilepsy.<ref name=":1">{{cite web |url=https://hyperallergic.com/717200/charlie-shackleton-interview-momi-first-look/ |title=''Presence and Absence in Virtual Reality Storytelling'' |date=16 March 2022 |publisher=Hyperallergic |accessdate=22 September 2022}}</ref> Both works can only be accessed in person; ''As Mine Exactly'' is performed one-on-one by Shackleton for each individual.<ref name=":3" /> ''As Mine Exactly'' was performed in Belfast; Denver; Columbus; New York City; London; Lewisburg, Pennsylvania; and Columbia, Missouri, for between 20 and 52 individuals in each city. The piece won the Immersive Art and XR Award at the 2022 London Film Festival.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ntim |first=Zac |date=16 October 2022 |title=London Film Festival Winners: Vicky Krieps-Starrer 'Corsage' Takes Best Film Award |url=https://deadline.com/2022/10/london-film-festival-vicky-krieps-starrer-corsage-takes-best-film-award-1235146288/ |access-date=3 December 2022 |website=Deadline |language=en-US}}</ref>
Shackleton's feature-length documentary ''Zodiac Killer Project'' premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the NEXT Innovator Award.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Holdaway |first=Aubrey |date=2025-02-10 |title=Sundance film review: 'Zodiac Killer Project' |url=https://usustatesman.com/sundance-film-review-zodiac-killer-project/ |access-date=2025-02-12 |website=usustatesman.com}}</ref>
== Personal life == According to Shackleton, he and his mother were abandoned by his father when he was a baby.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Shackleton |first=Charlie |date=9 October 2019 |title=@charlieshack |url=https://twitter.com/charlieshack/status/1181943166360047617 |access-date=3 December 2022 |website=Twitter |language=en}}</ref> He started using his father's surname, Lyne, around 2004 in what he termed "a fit of teenage reinvention".<ref name=":0" /> In 2019, regretting the decision, he resumed using his mother's last name.<ref name=":0" />
== Works ==
=== Film === *''Beyond Clueless'' (2014) *''Copycat'' (2015) *''Fear Itself'' (2015) *''Fish Story'' (2017) *''Personal Truth'' (2017) *''Lasting Marks'' (2018) *''A Machine For Viewing'' (2019) *''The Afterlight'' (2021) *''Paint Drying'' (2023) *''Zodiac Killer Project'' (2025)
=== Multimedia ===
* ''As Mine Exactly'' (2022)
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == *{{Official website|https://charlie.film/}} *{{IMDb name}}
{{Charlie Shackleton}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shackleton, Charlie}} Category:English film critics Category:English television presenters Category:British bloggers Category:1991 births Category:Living people Category:English filmmakers Category:Multimedia artists Category:Collage filmmakers Category:Video essayists Category:Sundance Film Festival award winners