Behind the Film: The Secret Assistants - Worcester Film Festival

Introduction

The Secret Assistants is a psychological drama about power, ambition and the compromises people make to get ahead.

Inspiration

I’ve always been interested in stories that explore the grey areas of life. With The Secret Assistants, I wanted to explore the dynamics of power, the quiet horror of complicity, how fear and ambition can be used to control, and how hierarchical structures, whether in film, corporations, medicine, academia or beyond, protect the powerful at the expense of the powerless. It’s about what happens everywhere, every day, when speaking up feels impossible. It examines how easily power manipulates, coerces and silences, especially when livelihoods and dreams are on the line. We often hear about powerful people when they’re exposed, but we rarely talk about the people around them, the assistants, employees and bystanders who find themselves caught in impossible situations. The Secret Assistants is not based on one person or one event, but on a culture that has existed across many industries for years. I wanted the audience to ask themselves what they would do if their career, their future and their conscience were all pulling in different directions.

The Process

We made this film with a radical principle at its core: everyone, from producer to runner, was paid the same daily wage. Crew members were given the option to anonymously reinvest their fee back into the film, and only the line producer knows who chose to invest. This model not only reflected the film’s themes of power and hierarchy but also helped us deliver a short film with high international production value for a very limited budget. The result was a crew deeply invested in the project, both financially and creatively. Making an independent film always comes with challenges, and this one was no different. We had ambitious ideas and limited resources, so every decision had to count and every team member had to go the extra mile. The whole cast and crew embraced the collaborative spirit of independent filmmaking, and everyone went above and beyond to make the film feel much bigger than its tiny budget.

What It Means to Be a Finalist

We are delighted that The Secret Assistants has been selected at the Worcester Film Festival. Independent films rely on festivals like this to find their audience, and it’s incredibly rewarding to know the story is travelling around the world through the amazing work of festivals just like this.