Elise Tyson
Elise Tyson is a writer and filmmaker from Naarm, Australia. Her writing has been published in The Guardian and her short film St Bernie won awards at various film festivals worldwide, including Best National Film at Canberra Short Film Festival. She lives in London. Her favourite thing in the world is the colour green.
Elise finds inspiration from observing the world around her and the spaces between people. Her favourite stories challenge social perceptions, breathe authenticity and celebrate the wonderfully messy human condition.
Q: Do you have a favourite quote? (From a book, film, song, speech…)
A: I’m in love with too many glorious combinations of words to choose just one! But Death’s closing line in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief took my breath away: ‘I am haunted by humans.’
Q: Is there a book that you keep going back to, and if so, how many times have you read it?
A: Every few years I go back to my favourite book, George Orwell’s 1984. It still shocks me how scarily accurate it is. ‘Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.’ Shivers.
Q: If you could teleport yourself anywhere, real or fictional, where would it be and why?
A: Aside from being able to teleport to the other side of the world to see my family whenever I like, I would love to travel to another universe and visit a planet that sustains life, similar to Earth. What beauty lies there that I don’t even have the capacity to visualise? Have the beings on that planet made a mess of it like we did here? What can we learn from them? Do they have the colour green?
Q: Who is your personal inspiration?
A: Coming from a filmmaking background, two of my greatest inspirations are Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Michaela Cole. I can only dream to write like them. There is so much depth to their messy characters whose heart and humour intersect with the very raw, dark experiences they face.
