Soundtrack to Sixteen
2013, 40 minutes
Soundtrack to Sixteen is a coming-of-age romantic film set against the backdrop of A-level exam stress and teenage awkwardness.
Maisy, a self-conscious 16-year-old muses about life and her hopeless attempts at romance as she wonders through Camden. Meanwhile Ben, an offbeat teenager, desperate to prove his intellectual ability, meanders through the same streets. As we hear their voice-overs expressing their strings of thought, we get to know them and picture them together. When Maisy spots Nathan, the boy next door for whom she has a hopeless crush, she ends up stalking him through the market. Nathan ducks into a shop and Maisy follows however she finds him staring at her, a look of confusion/accusation on his face. Maisy runs out of she shop in embarrassment, bumping into Ben in her rush and dropping her bag. They both awkwardly apologise, repeatedly. Ben makes a half-hearted attempt to help Maisy with her bag but just apologises again and walks off, thinking to himself how frustrating it is that he never meets any girls.