in pre-production
short film
institutional satire
STATUS:
in pre-production
Mediation
An exhausted ward manager forces two employees into mediation, only to find herself confronting the bitter truth of a system that demands compassion from women and offers them none in return.
written by Leena Makoff & Irina Bayly
directed by Irina Bayly
Mediation started with something an ex-housemate told me. I changed the details until it became its own thing, but the core stayed. Three women. Three generations. Three ethnicities. A workplace mediation that, when you zoom out far enough, becomes a portrait of everything patriarchy does to women who are simply trying to function inside systems that were never built for them. The story was too strong to leave alone. I knew I could write, but I needed a collaborator who could direct it with the same intelligence. That's Irina. We co-write, she directs, I produce and act. We are in preproduction, and I could not be more excited. -- Leena
in development
feature film
comedy-drama
STATUS:
in development
Not a Cancer Story [working title]
Newly divorced, still in chemo, and finally, catastrophically free, Sarah discovers that nearly dying was the easy part. Actually living is going to take everything she has.
created by Leena Makoff
A friend told me her life story, and I knew immediately it needed to be a film. She was given a year to live. She had a two-year-old child. And she understood, with absolute clarity, that the life she had been living, one of people pleasing, self-abandonment, and complete abdication from her own needs, was going to kill her faster than the diagnosis. So she changed everything. Today, she lives an extraordinary life, artistically free, sexually free, fully herself. Not a Cancer Story [working title] is a feature film about that transformation. A dramedy about cancer with the least amount of cancer possible. About what happens when a woman finally, under the most extreme circumstances, chooses herself. -- Leena
proof of motion
We believe in starting before you are ready. These films are the proof of that. Made on instinct, made with almost nothing, made because they had to be made.
short film
mockumentary
STATUS:
proof of motion, completed
Committing the Kiss
A visionary director. A daring cast. A kiss that went too far. Committing the Kiss is a behind-the-scenes mockumentary about the chaos, egos, and accidental intimacy that turned one art film into an emotional battlefield.
concept and film by Leena Makoff
improvisation directed by Sophie Pumphrey
photography and set direction by Callum Fernandes-Clarke
edited by Arron Wildman
I had no money, a wild idea, and complete faith in a room full of talented actors. Committing the Kiss is a mockumentary about intimacy on set where a group of actors and their slightly tyrannical director make an arthouse film - The Kiss. We improvised the whole thing in a single day. I was the creative brain; someone else held the camera end and directed the improv. The result is funny, strange, and genuinely alive in the way that only no-budget passion projects can be. We shot so much good material that the sequel, from the same shoot, is currently in post. -- Leena
short film
comedy, satire
STATUS:
proof of motion, completed
One Soul at a Time (T&C Apply)
Two seekers arrive for enlightenment - only to realise they've both been scammed by the same guru. One Soul at a Time (T&C Apply) is a sharp satire on spiritual consumerism, where awakening comes with a PayPal receipt and no refund policy.
written by Keith Orton
directed by Aga Owczarek
produced by Leena Makoff
photography by Matteo Zenini
I'm not going to pretend this is my best work. But One Soul at a Time (T&C Apply) matters to me because of what it clarified. It began as a Directors Cut Theatre collaboration, a scene Keith wrote that I couldn't let go of, and I didn't want to. The shoot was scrappy: iPhone, difficult sound, no real resources. But it taught me more about what I actually am as a producer than anything else I've made or experienced. I am not a line producer. I am a creative force, a story-shaper, an igniter of collaboration. This film is where I learned that, and that clarity has been worth everything. -- Leena
short film
mockumentary
STATUS:
proof of motion, in post-production
Committing a Romance
A companion piece to Committing the Kiss, cut from the same shoot. Same world, new story. This time, the camera focuses on a totalitarian director and a well-known actor, and the ghost of whatever happened between them before anyone was watching.
concept by Leena Makoff
improvisation directed by Sophie Pumphry
photography and set direction by Callum Fernandes-Clarke
produced by Leena Makoff
Same shoot. Same day. Completely different film. Committing a Romance is cut from footage that didn't make it into Committing the Kiss, and it follows a thread we couldn't ignore: the history between the director and one of her actors. Past lovers, present tension, and a crew that catches all of it. Still in post. Still being shaped. But the material is there, and it's good. -- Leena
in conception
TV series
comedy
STATUS:
in conception
Polski Sklep
One wants to forget where she came from. The other refuses to let go of it. Together, they have inherited a Polish shop in London, a community that needs them and absolutely no idea what they are doing.
created by Leena Makoff
Polski Sklep is a TV show about two Eastern European women who inherit a rundown Polish shop in London and have absolutely nothing in common except the shop. One is Polish, millennial, and would honestly prefer if nobody knew she was Polish. The other is Romanian, younger, and aggressively proud of every inch of where she came from. They didn't know each other before. They don't particularly want to know each other now. But the shop keeps them there, and so does the community around it, a pocket of London with its own rhythm, its own regulars, its own stubborn warmth. Somewhere between the tension and the compromise, they end up making something neither of them expected. A show about what happens when you stop running from where you came from and just... open the shop. -- Leena
long form podcast
in-depth conversations
STATUS:
in conception
Self Awareness Fever Podcast
Conversations with people from the creative industries, not about the work they make but about who they are becoming while they make it. How artists, filmmakers, and storytellers develop as human beings alongside the careers they are building.
originated and hosted by Leena Makoff
Self Awareness Fever is a podcast I am building because I am obsessed with a very specific kind of person. Someone who has given their life to a creative calling and is honest enough to tell you what that has actually done to them. Not the highlight reel. The real journey. The plan is conversations with artists, filmmakers, and creatives who are living this life not for achievement but for growth, for awareness, for becoming more fully themselves. And who can articulate it in a way that makes you want to pull up a chair. Solo episodes too, where I bring my own perspective into the room. The whole thing is built on one belief: that self-awareness is not a destination. It is a fever. And some of us are very happily sick with it. -- Leena
TV series
dramedy
STATUS:
in conception
Unicorn Baby
A Hackney warehouse. A pregnancy nobody planned. And a commune full of people who are very progressive about everything except this.
created by Leena Makoff
Unicorn Baby is a TV show about what happens when conscious, self-aware, vaguely leftist people make spectacularly reckless choices and then have to live inside the consequences. It begins in a Hackney warehouse. It begins with a threesome. It begins with the kind of situation that feels like a very good idea until it absolutely isn't. The characters are complicated and real and funny and occasionally awful. The show asks whether you can still call yourself a good person when the evidence is genuinely mixed. And somewhere around the end of the pilot, somebody finds out they might be pregnant. -- Leena
in production
in post production
short film
mockumentary
STATUS:
proof of motion, in post-production
Committing a Romance
A companion piece to Committing the Kiss, cut from the same shoot. Same world, new story. This time, the camera focuses on a totalitarian director and a well-known actor, and the ghost of whatever happened between them before anyone was watching.
concept by Leena Makoff
improvisation directed by Sophie Pumphry
photography and set direction by Callum Fernandes-Clarke
produced by Leena Makoff
Same shoot. Same day. Completely different film. Committing a Romance is cut from footage that didn't make it into Committing the Kiss, and it follows a thread we couldn't ignore: the history between the director and one of her actors. Past lovers, present tension, and a crew that catches all of it. Still in post. Still being shaped. But the material is there, and it's good. -- Leena
completed
short film
mockumentary
STATUS:
proof of motion, completed
Committing the Kiss
A visionary director. A daring cast. A kiss that went too far. Committing the Kiss is a behind-the-scenes mockumentary about the chaos, egos, and accidental intimacy that turned one art film into an emotional battlefield.
concept and film by Leena Makoff
improvisation directed by Sophie Pumphrey
photography and set direction by Callum Fernandes-Clarke
edited by Arron Wildman
I had no money, a wild idea, and complete faith in a room full of talented actors. Committing the Kiss is a mockumentary about intimacy on set where a group of actors and their slightly tyrannical director make an arthouse film - The Kiss. We improvised the whole thing in a single day. I was the creative brain; someone else held the camera end and directed the improv. The result is funny, strange, and genuinely alive in the way that only no-budget passion projects can be. We shot so much good material that the sequel, from the same shoot, is currently in post. -- Leena
short film
comedy, satire
STATUS:
proof of motion, completed
One Soul at a Time (T&C Apply)
Two seekers arrive for enlightenment - only to realise they've both been scammed by the same guru. One Soul at a Time (T&C Apply) is a sharp satire on spiritual consumerism, where awakening comes with a PayPal receipt and no refund policy.
written by Keith Orton
directed by Aga Owczarek
produced by Leena Makoff
photography by Matteo Zenini
I'm not going to pretend this is my best work. But One Soul at a Time (T&C Apply) matters to me because of what it clarified. It began as a Directors Cut Theatre collaboration, a scene Keith wrote that I couldn't let go of, and I didn't want to. The shoot was scrappy: iPhone, difficult sound, no real resources. But it taught me more about what I actually am as a producer than anything else I've made or experienced. I am not a line producer. I am a creative force, a story-shaper, an igniter of collaboration. This film is where I learned that, and that clarity has been worth everything. -- Leena