Polly Pierce
Director
Cinematographer
"Stepping Stones"
A Short Documentary
Written & Directed by
Polly Pierce
"Stepping Stones" recounts the story of Shexian Ink Stone engraver Hu Bin and his decision to leave the fast paced and yet isolated life of Shanghai to return to the tradition and legacy of his family's ink stone engraving business in smaller Shexian, thus finding personal and professional fulfillment in the exploration, growth and passing on of this Chinese intangible cultural tradition.
Prepped, shot and edited within three wild and busy weeks in Anhui Province in China in April/ May 2024, "Stepping Stones" was my first documentary film. It was a beautiful experience to be immersed in Chinese culture and tradition and to be challenged to grow and rediscover filmmaking in such an intensive process with only my local Chinese producer, Annan, as a lifeline to navigate the language barrier.
Currently, in post, I hope to have "Stepping Stones" soon in the film festival circuit.
"A Nice Indian Boy"
Feature Film
Written by Eric Randall
Adapted from the Play by Madhuri Shekar
Directed by
Roshan Sethi
Associate Producer: Polly Pierce et al
When Naveen (Karan Soni) brings his fiance Jay (Jonathan Groff) home to meet his family, his traditional Indian parents must contend with accepting his white partner and helping them plan the most fabulous same sex Indian wedding the Bay Area has ever seen.
It was such a pleasure and a dream to work on this project! Our incredible cast and crew had such passion for this story to be told and I feel like you can sense the love in the finished product.
And to our brave, empathic and amazing director, Roshan Sethi, thank you for providing me with this opportunity to give so much on your film and to invest my heart into it. The memories and lessons will remain with me and continue to shape my directing practise moving forward.
And what a way to debut this film into the world than having it's World Premiere at the 2024 South X Southwest (SXSW) Festival!
Stills by David Bukach
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"One Baby, Please"
Comedy Pilot Teaser
produced by the National Screen Institute's
Series Incubator Program
Created and Written by
Mostafa Shaker
Directed by
Polly Pierce
"One Baby, Please" will be an 8-episode half hour comedy series that centres on Omar and Dieon. They're an interacial gay couple living in Vancouver, Canada and they want to have a baby. The only hiccups are their opposing cultural values (Egyptian and Bajan), their families, their friends and the bureaucracy and technicalities that surrounds the process itself!
We have shot the teaser for the pilot at the end of July 2022 to contribute to our pitch package for development.
Stills by Les Puchala
***UPDATES***
"One Baby, Please!" has won the following awards at the Independent Shorts Awards, LA (Feb 2023):
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Gold Award for Best LGBTQ Short Film
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Bronze Award for Best Microfilm
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Bronze Award for Best Cinematography
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Bronze Award for Best Ensemble Cast
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Honorable Mention for Best Editing
And had it's BC, Canada premiere at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival in August, 2023
A New Timeless Pictures
Project Teaser
6 Part Television Dramedy series
Written by Amir Khan
Directed by Polly Pierce
A coming of age story centring on a group of LGBTQ+ teens in rural Canada during the 1990s.
We have shot the teaser for the pilot at the end of Oct 2022 to contribute to our pitch package for development.
Stills by Les Puchala
In the Name of Love?
A Domestic Violence Survivor's Story
- Feature Length Documentary
Written and Directed by
Polly Pierce
The evening of October 23 2012 is one that would change Polly Harrison's life forever.
That evening, Polly's abusive fiancee, Mark-Alexander Hartwin, arrived home from his high-paying job at Pixar and unleashed the most ferocious of his regular violent outbursts against her; he confined her for 16 hours in their Vancouver apartment and stalked her within it's walls, screamed verbal abuse into her ears while physically restraining her and violently assaulted her by trying to suffocate her multiple times that evening while pinning her down to their bed and the floor and crushing her into the concrete walls of their apartment, all in an attempt to kill her.
Despite surviving this vicious attack, and summoning the courage to file assault and confinement charges against her abusive ex-partner, Polly's biggest challenge was yet to arrive in the shape of the unsympathetic and cold BC Crown Counsellor, Snover Bains, and the BC Judicial System. Although Hartwin plead guilty to these charges, Crown Counsellor Bains handed down only a $500 CAD fine and a Peace Bond/ Protection Order, with charges expunged after a one year period, as punishment for the brutal violence he inflicted upon Polly that night.
Was Polly Harrison's life, which she almost lost that fateful night, only worth $500? And why expunge the confinement and assault charges which Hartwin plead guilty to?
This feature length documentary will use Polly Harrison's experience of facing the BC Crown Counsel and Judicial System to question their judgement and similar limp handling of other Domestic Violence cases within the Province and ask what needs to be done to adequately provide justice to victims of Domestic Violence, so they are not also victims of the System.