“For me, winning the BAFTA means a lot personally,” said poet, writer and now award-winning filmmaker Dean Atta back in his old stomping ground of Acton.
Dean’s poetry often deals with questions of identity and social justice and has been commissioned by multiple prestigious and well-known venues and organisations.
However, he achieved success of a different kind recently when he won the British Short Animation award from BAFTA (British Academy for Film and Television Arts) for Two Black Boys in Paradise. It is about a pair of boys, Doula and Eden, in their own private paradise – one that is shattered by suspicion and fear.
Dean grew up in various places in north west London, was a pupil at Twyford High School in Acton and now lives in the borough. And it was at Act One Cinema in Acton (a popular choice with Dean) where Around Ealing – and the council’s West London Film Office – caught up with him.
Fantasy and reality
“The film has had a long journey from poem to screen,” said Dean. “I wrote the poem 6 or 7 years ago. It’s a poem inspired by a painting of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. When I saw that painting, I wanted to put black, queer people in Eden. “
In the film, when Doula and Eden are accused of being thieves, they are snatched out of their paradise and into another, crueller world.
Dean explained: “It’s trying to show how we live in multiple worlds. The world we would love to live in and the world, unfortunately, that we face on a daily basis, full of discrimination.”
‘We’re all so different’
The storytelling has a deep resonance for Dean himself; and it is also an attempt to broaden the voices and faces in film, to showcase the positivity of the difference in all of us.
“My idea of paradise is to be seen and accepted for who I am, and not being asked to change or to alter myself for anyone else’s agenda. And we can do that for each other.
“And I think the importance of LGBT stories and having a diversity of LGBT stories matters. I think having the intersectional storytelling is super important because we’re all so different.”
‘A special, special night’
After several unsuccessful funding attempts for his ‘hugely ambitious project’, One6th Animation Studio, led by Baz Sells and Ben Jackson, got financial backing – including from movie and theatre star Sir Ian McKellen – to embark on a long labour of love, featuring an intricate 18-month shoot involving puppets and props.
It came out in 2025 and good reviews were, of course, followed by BAFTA recognition this year. Dean wanted his mum to be the first person outside of the room on awards night to know that he had won.
He recalled: “After my acceptance speech and was backstage, I took my phone off airplane mode to tell my mum that I had won. I just wanted her to know before anyone else and then get back on to the interviews, the photo shoots, all the things you had to do backstage, which took ages.
“It’s recognition for what is essentially my first film, which means it’s a green light to keep doing this. I hope it also opens the door for other black queer stories to be told because, from the response we’ve had, it’s such a joyous film and people really feel that joy.”
Watch a video and read Dean’s tips for aspiring writers and filmmakers.
Getting on-screen
The West London Film Office (WLFO) is on the lookout for local properties that could be transformed by film and TV crews. Could it be your home or business? Visit the WLFO website or email wlfo@ealing.gov.uk to find out more.
