SELECTED POETRY FILMS (2019 - NOW)

SCROLL DOWN TO WATCH INDIVIDUAL FILMS.

TO WATCH ALL FILMS, CLICK HERE: WWW.FILMFREEWAY.COM/LEECAMPBELL

‘Campbell’s work oscillates between memory and everyday life, as well as between
private, public and pop-cultural history.’ Curator Alexander Schultz speaking about my exhibition SEE ME, Raum fur Kunst ,Paderborn, September 2023
 

As both the writer, director and performer, I view my poetry film practice as me performing an autoethnography; using these media forms and the chosen themes within their narratives to help me self-reflect and (better) understand myself in relation to acts of looking, seeing and being seen and the difficulty in terms of not seeing/not being seen and my own subjectivity and experiences as British, working class, male, and gay. Themes of masculinity and desire underpin many aspects of my work. 

 

Comedy historically comes from a queer identity defence, when it was harder to be gay in public, to be funny like Kenneth Williams who used gay slang known as Polari to communicate with other gay men covertly. Extending these ideas, underpinning my work are the mechanisms of comedy and humour to create a form of autoethnographic storytelling that subverts and challenges through a sophisticated usage of camp, innuendo and double-entendres to speak of personal narratives often raw, often painful but always generous and authentic. 

 

Applied humour as a tactic to subvert and challenge a issues of homosexual identity and representation in relation to themes addressing seeing/not seeing etc. My practice presents a personal archaeology and revolves around my own autobiographical perspective, using the mechanisms of comedy and humour to engage, disarm, and highlight the gay male subcultural milieu which needs critique as it creates such stereotypes. 

 

With a background in Painting and then Performance Art, my current artist moving image film practice brings together personal drawing, painting, photography and performance. Collage has become a major tool in this recent film practice, reinvigorating paintings and drawings that I produced nearly twenty years ago which are juxtaposed throughout my films with current photographic and performance for camera work. These films are often made with reusing / repurposing personal archival material and sound and moving image recordings. Things insist, in a spiral, nothing’s wasted. In my current practice, I use all my capacities, from theatre to drawing to painting to language to the comic to the affective to the relational, to painting and performance and film. Excavating (fine art) work I made long ago and resuscitating it, I bring it back to life through the medium of film and moving image. Integrating my fine artwork into my film work, my films create an arresting palimpsest effect by recycling pieces from previous bodies of work and placing them within my current context to see how their meanings may now differ from when they were first conceived. Whilst what is presented through my films can be read as one person’s (my) narrative, so too can it easily be read as lots of different voices layered to talk about wider levels of experience with various references to cultural context that (any)one can relate to.

 

RECENT SELECTED AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS 

 

2024 Nominee for Best Experimental Film for ‘Periscope’, Fisheye Film Festival, Bucks, U.K 

2024 Nominee for Best Experimental Film for ‘Proper Shave’, Fisheye Film Festival, Bucks, U.K 

2024 Nominee for Best Experimental Film for ‘Press Eject’, Fisheye Film Festival, Bucks, U.K 

2023 Finalist for ‘Periscope’, Deanna Tulley Multimedia Prize 2023

2023 Nominee for Best Experimental Short for Michael in the Mountains’, Appalachian Queer Film Festival, Huntington, West Virginia, USA

2023 Finalist for ‘Slang Bang’ and ‘Rufus’, Iris Prize LGBTQ+ Film Festival, Cardiff, Wales 

2023 Finalist for ‘Bears with Bananas and Bubbles in Their Boxers’ The Artists Spoken Word Competition, NYC, USA 

2023 WINNER of Best Micro Short for 'The Colour of His Eyes', Under Appreciated Film Festival 2023 

2023 Semi-Finalist for 'Head Boy', Neum Underwater Film Festival, Neum, Bosnia

2023 Honorable Mention for 'SEE ME', Los Angeles Underground Film Forum, Los Angeles, USA  

2023 Honorable Mention for 'SEE ME' and 'Juniper Park', Experimental Forum, Los Angeles

2023 Shortlisted for BEST POETRY FILM for ‘SEE ME’, Out-Spoken Poetry Prize 2023, Southbank Centre, London 

2023 WINNER of BEST ANIMATED SHORT for ‘Rufus’ at The Rooster Film Festival, Portland, USA 

2023 Honorable Mention for 'Let Rip: Teenage Scrapbook' at REELPOETRY INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL 2023 Houston, Texas, USA 

2022 WINNER of BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM for ‘SEE ME’, Ealing Film Festival, London 

2022 Finalist for ‘Apple of My Eye’, Deanna Tulley Multimedia Prize 2022

2022 Finalist for ‘See Shells’, Drumshanbo Written Word Weekend Poetry Film Competition, Drumshanbo, Ireland 

2022 Juan Downey International Contest (Finalist), Chile  

2022 Hombres Video Poetry Award (Finalist) for ‘SEE ME’, SlamContemporary, Italy  

2022 Finalist for ‘Rufus’, MicroMania Film Festival 2022, Buffalo, NY, USA

2022 Finalist for ‘The Perfect Crime: A Doggy Whodunnit’, Absurd Art House Film Festival 2022

2022 Finalist for ‘Reclaiming my Voice’, Vesuvius International Film Festival

2022 Honorable Special Mention Award, Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival
2021 Best Psychedelic Fantasy film winner for 'See Me' (2020), Retro Avant Garde Film Festival NYC 

2021 Semi-Finalist, Serbest International Film Festival 2021 

2021 Honorable Mention, Splice Film Festival, New York 

2021 Nominee for Best Original Concept and Best Atmosphere Independent Horror Movie Awards 2021

2021 Honorable Mention Award for 'See Me' (2020), Screener Short Films   

2021 Best Kent Film nominee for ‘Peer’ (2020), Margate Bookie Film Festival 

2021 Honorable Special Mention Award, Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival

2020 Semi-Finalist (3rd place winner), Splice Film Festival, New York 

2019 Special Mention Award, London-Worldwide Comedy Short Film Festival

THE ADVENTURES OF RUFUS (2024)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/THEADVENTURESOFRUFUS2024846

BEARS WITH BANANAS AND BUBBLES IN THEIR BOXERS (2022)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/BEARSWITHBANANASANDBUBBLESINTHEIRBOXERSEXTENDEDVERSION2023

 

 

BEARDS AND BANANAS 

(HANDS ALL OVER MR GROVER) (2023)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/BEARDSANDBANANASHANDSALLOVERMRGROVER

BLINDED (2023) (EXPLICIT)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/BLINDED2023EXPLICITVERSION

THE BOY AT THE WINDOW (2022)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/THEBOYATTHEWINDOW 

  CAMP (2022)  

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: https://filmfreeway.com/CAMP2022    

 

CAMP-BELLE (2021)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/CAMP-BELLE2021

CANCELLED (2024)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/CANCELLED2024

CLEANING HIS KITCHEN (2023)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

   https://filmfreeway.com/CLEANINGHISKITCHEN2023

 

THE COLOUR OF HIS EYES (2022)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/colour592

COTTAGE (2022)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/COTTAGEPERUSINGTHEFLOWERBED

COVERT OPERATIONS (2022)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/COVERTOPERATIONS2022589

 

CRUISE (2023)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:  

https://filmfreeway.com/CRUISE2023

 

DAN OF DARTFORD (2023)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE https://filmfreeway.com/DANOFDARTFORD

 

 

DANCING WITH SPIDERS (2023)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

  https://filmfreeway.com/DANCINGWITHSPIDERS

 

A DAY OUT WITH RUFUS (2023)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/ADAYOUTWITHRUFUS2023

DEVIL'S HOLE (2022)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/DEVILSHOLE2022

 

 

DIRTY LOOKS (2023)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/DIRTYLOOKS2023

DISGUSTED (2023)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:  

https://filmfreeway.com/DISGUSTEDOFTUNBRIDGEWELLS2023

 

EINS, ZWEI, GERMAN GUY (2024)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/EINSZWEIGERMANGUY2024

FILF (2024)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/FILF

GRAMMAR SCHOOL GUY (2022)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/GRAMMARSCHOOLGUY 

 

THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE (2024) 

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/THEHAREANDTHETORTOISE2023

HEAD BOY (2022)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/HEADBOY2022

HECKLER (2024)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/HECKLER2024

HIMBO JIMBO (2024)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/HIMBOJIMBO2024

HUNK IN TRUNKS (2023)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/HUNKINTRUNKS2023 

INDIGNANT THUMB (2024)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/INDIGNANTESPOLLICEINDIGNANTTHUMB

JAGGED (2024)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/JAGGED2024

JUICY LUCY (2022)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/JUICYLUCY2022 

 

 

 

JUNIPER PARK (2022)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/j980

LET RIP: THE BEAUTIFUL GAME (2020)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:  

https://filmfreeway.com/l966

LET RIP: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF SEEING AND NOT SEEING (2019) 

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

 https://filmfreeway.com/LETRIP

LET RIP: TEENAGE SCRAPBOOK (2022)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/LETRIPTEENAGESCRAPBOOK

LITTLE SEEDS, BIG DREAMS (2024)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/LITTLESEEDSBIGDREAMS

MENDING (2024)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/MENDING2024

MICHAEL IN THE MOUNTAINS (2023)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/MICHAELINTHEMOUNTAINS2023 

 

 

NICE CUP OF TEA (2022) 

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/NICECUPOFTEA 

 

           PERISCOPE (2023)

          TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/PERISCOPEWHOSGONNAWANNALOOKATYOU

THE PERFECT CRIME: 

A DOGGY WHODUNNIT (2021) 

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

  https://filmfreeway.com/O026

PLUMS (2023)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/PLUMS20230

POSTCARDS (2022)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/POSTCARDS980

 

PRESS EJECT (2022)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/PRESSREJECT

 

  PROPER SHAVE (2023)

  TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/PROPERSHAVE2023

QUEERING THE LANDSCAPE (2024)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/QUEERINGTHELANDSCAPE

QUEERO IN NERO (2024)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/KISSINGINNERO2024

RECLAIMING MY VOICE (2022)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/FINDINGMYVOICE476 

 

 

RUFUS (2022) 

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/RUFUS2021

 

 

SATISFACTION (2020)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/SATISFACTIONYOUREMATCHEDSAYHELLO2020

 

SEE ME: A WALK THROUGH LONDON’S GAY SOHO, 1994 and 2020 (2021)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/SEEMEAWALKTHROUGHLONDONSGAYSOHO1994and20202020SHORT

 

SEE SHELLS (2022)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/SEESHELLS2022

 

SLANGBANG (2023)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/SLANGBANG

SPINACH AND EGGS (2021)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/WRONGKINGOFFATTHESNAKEINSIDE2021VideopoembyLeeCampbell

 

SPOKESFIST (2023)

  TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/SPOKESFISTAFISTFULOFFUNINTHEGAYSAUNAASTOLDBYTHEDIRECTORSFIST2023

STD (2024)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/STD2024

SUN IN MY EYES (2024)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/SUn466

TACKLE (2023)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/TACKLE2023

 

THE TALE OF BENNY HARRIS (2022)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/THETALEOFBENNYHARRIS

THE TREE MAN (2024)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/THETREEMAN2024

TRIGGER FINGER (2024)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/THETREEMAN2024

TUBE STARES (2024)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/TUBESTAIRS2024

UPSIDE DOWN (2024)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/UPSIDEDOWN2023

USED TO BE (2024)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/USEDTOBE2024

WAIN'S WORLD (2023)

TO WATCH, CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/WAINSWORLD

WHO FRAMED RUFUS (2024)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/WHOFRAMEDRUFUS2024

 

WRISTY GRISTY (2024)

TO WATCH CLICK HERE: 

https://filmfreeway.com/WRISTYGRISTY2024

WRONG KIND OF FAT (2019) 

TO WATCH CLICK HERE:

https://filmfreeway.com/LiminalBody