Re:Framed: My New Film Is Coming For Businesses, Conferences and More!

I can’t quite believe I am saying these words: I have a film coming out. Crikey! Out of the, quite frankly, head**ckery year that was 2020, has been born this film that I could not be prouder of.  

Let me take you back to July 2019 (oh, the memories) – I had just done my latest one-woman show off the West End as a series of preview performances and its ethos was to make people laugh and think. It went well, more than well, and the audience used words such as “raw, honest, thought-provoking and inspirational,” and some even went so far as to form whole sentences:   

“I thought your show was so honest… for me it has made me think about my life and my need for absolute honesty with myself…it’s a show but it’s also a gift as I’ve never seen or heard anything that made me dig deep to find my truth in such a short space of time. It was also bloody hilarious…” 

“Important subjects, well-balanced, made me think.  Realised that to move forward you need to break the cycle. To me the show was about love, kindness and transformation.” 

So, some pretty amazing feedback and I can’t lie, I was pretty chuffed that the audience got from the show exactly what I intended them too – they laughed and thought. 

From this, we developed the show in November 2019 with an eye very much on the corporate world, as I knew how intrinsically important this could be. We took it to Barclays in Canary Wharf and delivered the show, which was incredible, but what was more incredible was the Q&A that followed. What should have been 20 minutes turned into an hour and I dare say if we hadn’t have had to call time, it would have gone on for a lot longer. 

We knew that the need was there and very, very real and luckily, Barclays agreed: 

“We hosted Emma Stroud and her one woman show in November 2019 as part of a wider campaign around Be Well and ‘bringing your whole self to work’. 

Emma gave a superb performance in sharing her truth; insightful, empowering, and courageous. One of the reasons we invited Emma to present her show was to explore concepts and experiences through non-traditional methods; Me:Em did just that. 

Definitely one of the most thought-provoking and enlightening events hosted by our gender network this year. I would thoroughly recommend Emma Stroud to any organisation looking to engage colleagues on mental health, wellbeing and speaking your truth."

Rachel Scandling | Head of TTRO Large Holdings, Barclays 

Again, crikey. 

So, so far, so good - the show was gaining momentum and the enquiries were coming in thick and fast. But then that thing called a global health pandemic happened and shut us down; the ideas and dreams of taking this story and Q and A to people in businesses was stopped in its tracks. But we dusted ourselves off and regrouped posing the question: what can we do?  

Me getting in front of a live audience was an absolute no-go for the considerable future,  but just waiting until life got back to ‘normal’ again (we were thinking around 2 months at this point – what fools!) was not an option, so decided to go digital and to bring this show to life as a film! 

The subsequent meetings went something like this: 

• What we can do is bring in the fabulously talented film director and writer James Kermack (check out his latest film Knuckledust – mega).  
• What we can do is get a soundtrack written by a top musician (will reveal soon who he is!)  
• What we can do is adapt the theatre show into a film that connects people in their homes using some of the newest technology and audio tech out there. Finding the best studio with Duncan and his team at Branchout Studios to make this real! 

What we can do is work with the most amazing partner in Rachel Locke who can do all the magic behind the scenes and suddenly my vision of helping people across the world seems possible. 

And I am very proud to say it all happened and the trailer for the film is ready this week!  

I am so excited. The film will raise questions around: mental health, coming out, showing up as the best you at work and how I found a way of being ok. The film will always be followed by a Q and A. and we have partners in place who can then support your people after the main event.  

This is the most exciting project I have ever been involved in (apart from maybe the podcast and book…) and we will be giving 20 percent of the profits to The Samaritans. 

I will share more details on how to book this for your people next week. But for now, here is a picture of us creating it! 

Now, what shall I wear to the Oscars?