The Liberation of Thomas Turpin

Director’s Note

The Liberation of Thomas Turpin was written in early 2025, and shot later that same year as a third-year UTS “capstone” project. Fundamentally, it is a film about a man who desperately needs to open up, but who opens up too much to the wrong people and suffers the consequences. It is a psychosexual nightmare comedy that subverts conventional put-yourself-out-there messaging with the horror of being truly known.

I came up with the idea only the night before I had to deliver a pitch to my class (a pitch I wrote in a manic haze in the wee hours of the morning). Despite its spontaneous origins, I immediately felt attached to it, and knew it was getting at something that felt true to me. What I didn’t expect was that it would so resonate with others, too. At every step of the process of writing, crewing, casting, shooting, editing and screening this film, I was met with support and encouragement and genuine enthusiasm, both from those dearest to me and from people I had never met. Through crowdfunding alone (via donations as well as ticket sales for a trivia night), we managed to raise $910, which was about ninety times more money than I had ever spent on any project before. The path was not without its hurdles, but I cannot pretend to be anything but grateful for how it all unfolded as my first stint directing a (relatively) full-scale production.

Every person listed in the credits was instrumental to the project at some time or another, but I would like to highlight (approximately) three names in particular:

Jesse Dixon (Producer), who believed in the project at times more than even I did, and who produced and promoted with both rigour and ease.

Eveline Benedict (in the role of the Narrator), who graciously accepted our late-notice casting plea when our previous Narrator pulled out of the project, and who still put her all into memorising and absorbing the script for a consequently outstanding performance.

And Rohan Howell (Editor), whose commitment to the project never once faltered—not at 8pm, not at 12am, and still not at 8am the following day—and whose company was more than enough to sustain me through those long, ambitious nights. (And, in addition, Rohan’s immediate and extended family, who together provided the house in which we shot the film, as well as full catering for cast and crew at no cost to the production.)

Thank you all.

Eben