This story is part of True/False Conversations, a series of interviews with the filmmakers of this year’s True/False Film Fest. Find the full series here.
No Mean City is a short film that follows a crew of workmen in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as they change the orange, sodium lights in the city to bright LED lights. It’s a film about that literal change to the nighttime landscape, but it also explores how locals are making sense of all the change brought on by urbanization. KBIA's KBIA's Katelynn McIlwain caught up with No Mean City filmmaker Ross McClean, and here’s an excerpt from their conversation:
Katelynn McIlwain: Where did this film start for you?
Ross McClean: I was returning home to my family home where I grew up, in Belfast. And when I arrived, and I was driving up towards the house, I felt something had changed, and something was off. And I asked my dad, I said, “Has something changed outside that I can't figure out?” He said, “Oh, they've changed their lights from sodium orange to LED.” And as I was driving home, I realized that this place that I was so familiar with, it had changed drastically — overnight, without our permission — into something that felt to me in that moment a lot colder, a lot more clinical. And this small detail was actually having a huge impact on how we felt about the night and about the sort of nighttime landscape here.
McIlwain: Light itself seemed to be the storyteller, if you will, like the narrator. And the sound design brought a lot of attention, not only to the lights but also the distinct differences between them. How were you able to capture that storytelling so vividly but so succinctly?
McClean: Something that became important to us from early on was that the protagonist of this film would, in fact, be the lights. There’s a temptation that it would be the workers, and we would make a portrait about them as they change lights. But actually, light and change became the sort of themes that we became interested in quite early on, and that's why we begin — the first frame we see is a light, you know, it's this orange glow.
One thing that I like to do is to shoot and edit alongside each other. I think it's quite traditional to film everything you need, and then at the end of the process, you dive into the edit and you follow a sort of script and figure it all out then. But for me, in this project in particular, we had the luxury, you know — small crew, small budget — but this allowed us to film for a period, edit, film again, edit, and start to really write the film as we went along.
McIlwain: What did you enjoy about your hometown and growing up in Northern Ireland? What are the things of that time and that place that you — that just resonate with you and that are now maybe being challenged by modernity?
McClean: We used to be able to go out for dinner comfortably or get a pint for under four pounds. And, as I'm sure, with a lot of cities, this has just drastically changed, and the cost of living. And it's resulted in a lot of lifestyle changes that [are] unfortunate. And I think this film hopefully touches upon that.
Yes, it's a film about street lights. But in a way, you know, these LEDs that enter, they hopefully stand for urban change and change itself, especially in this city.
Yes, it's a film about street lights. But in a way, you know, these LEDs that enter, they hopefully stand for urban change and change itself, especially in this city.Ross McClean
And it's a film that's very specific to Belfast, you know, in some of the things that we show. But I think it's the world and Europe and elsewhere becoming a little flatter, a lot more expensive, a little more commercial.
And one element that's relevant here is ... I look down to Dublin, which, you know, is two hours down the motorway. And from a lot of friends that live down there, they think the city is unrecognizable. A lot of tech firms moved in. When these tech firms move in, the whole city has to cater for them. This is happening in Belfast, just 15 years later. And there's parts of the city that are just being totally flattened, some of this incredible Victorian architecture, spaces that I've enjoyed and loved navigating, and some of them, you know, have been derelict.
There's no doubt about that, and there's an argument against what I'm saying, but there's changes happening here that I struggle with, and a lot of locals are struggling with. And I hope that film touches upon it.
McIlwain: There was a brief radio spot in the film mentioning AI setting up shop in Belfast. What do you think about this artificial intelligence wave that's infusing itself into nearly every sector?
McClean: I'm sort of fascinated in relation to documentary, if I can mention that. My hope is, in a slightly selfish way, that the appetite for documentary and the real world and the material world will increase. And it's a form that I love, and I've dedicated a lot of my life to. And maybe it'll be like vinyl. Maybe people will want to embrace it in a way that can benefit and make them hungrier for the material world around us, because they're going to be so flooded with these AI images, which, right now, are easy to spot.
But it's clear from the Will Smith spaghetti video that they're only going to get better and better and be able to really fool us. I could be wrong. That could be wishful thinking. Maybe documentary is under threat, but I have a bit of a hope that it's going to shine through and possibly become more popular.
McIlwain: There's a moment in the film where there's a huge bonfire. How did that scene come together? And what do you think it says about our heart's inclination to the older traditions?
McClean: The warmth of a fire, the orange glow and the connection that had to the sodium lights felt really beautiful and in sync. In a way, the decision to use the bonfires was maybe tough in the sense that, if you were reading upon it, they're highly political. It celebrates a battle over 400 years ago, and a community here celebrates it every year, and it's an absolute spectacle.
So yes, not only is it about warmth and these primal urges and the orange and the consistency there and the nighttime — this is part of the nighttime landscape in Belfast, and this film takes place all at nighttime — but I think more importantly, it is about another example [of] how we hold onto the past through traditions. And in many ways, how these traditions are under threat. They’re trying to ban these bonfires, in a way, for good reason. They're kind of dangerous. These things fall in unpredictable ways. So maybe it will be a thing of the past, and we've managed to capture it here.
McIlwain: What do you hope people walk away with when it comes to thinking about the past?
McClean: I can't say for definite what I want people to go away with, but I can offer ideas about what I'm feeling and how I feel about this change in my city that I'm paying attention to, and that maybe we should all start thinking about what's going on.
Because these lights and these changes happen covertly. It's hard to see change, especially in a sort of urban context like this. We wake up, and the next night there's a completely different atmosphere to the night, and we didn't know about it, and most people don't even notice it. I didn't quite — I couldn't quite put my finger on it until my dad told me. And I think just sort of raising awareness there, that we should be tuned in to these kind of things. We should be tuned in to change. And hopefully the film can sort of hint towards that, while also remaining open for people to make their own interpretations.
