Sam Lee x Ffern

For Summer 24, we took Ffern's audience to Tuscany. The season’s short film accompanies folk singer and nature appreciator Sam Lee on a journey through green valleys and cypress avenues, between umbrella pines, meadows bursting with poppies and tiny hilltop towns. There we met many wonderful people - some of whom you’ll see in the film - and were serenaded by some exceptionally beautiful birds. We filmed Sam on a journey of curiosity, singing the folk song of nature adoration, ‘Sweet Lemeney’, amid the distinctive landscape of the Arezzo region - foraging for impressions, sounds and objects. A hare bell, the song of a nightingale (Sam’s muse and collaborator), a sunset view. Though very much an English song, we found all of the bird voices it names in Arezzo - nightingales, turtle doves, sky larks as well as golden orioles and nightjars. This film was shot on 16mm, on an Arri 416 📽️

A Note on Sweet Lemeney The traditional song ‘Sweet Lemeney’ is an aubade - a song for the morning - which contains clues to a lost midsummer tradition. ‘Lemeney’ has likely emerged from the Middle English ‘leman’, a word that means sweetheart or lover. Midsummer’s Day (that’s today!) was once called Leman’s Day, and lovers would serenade one another at dawn… This version uses the Copper Family of Sussex’s words and tune.