Director David Bartlett and Producer Will Poole created the award-winning and poignant short film MOUSIE, which is now eligible to be considered for an Academy Award.
Berlin 1936. Hitler will soon host the Olympics, and the streets are being “cleansed” of Jews and Romani “Gypsies”. A seven-year-old Roma girl – Hélène – hides in an old Weimar Club, concealed by dancer Katharina who plans to escape Nazism and take the girl to America. Hélène won’t rest. Sneaking about, the little mouse sees everything – including the arrival of SS Hauptführer Otto, an awkward army conscript. Clumsily making a pass at Katharina, the junior officer is inches away from discovering the little mouse. Decisions have to be made fast, and only the child’s extraordinary and virtuosic ingenuity will save her now.
Bartlett and producer Poole came together for a second time (after their first film “The Goodbye Plane”) to make MOUSIE. Their first film together, THE GOODBYE PLANE, was described as “A very beautiful film – very, very nicely directed” by Derek Malcolm of The Guardian. Film doyen and Oscar-winning director and documentarian Kevin Brownlow described it as “Very impressive. The action scenes are truly amazing”.
David Bartlett is a London-based writer and director. His career began at BBC as a Second Unit Director for BBC feature Happy Birthday Shakespeare. He has written and directed numerous dramatizations such as THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY, THE ASSASSINATION OF JFK and THE HITLER DIARIES, for the BBC. He also wrote and directed TV feature TRIAL OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR for the UK’s Five/ ITV Studios. David has just begun co-writing the adaptation of a best-selling US novel for the screen.
Will Poole worked for the global children’s TV network Nickelodeon as Production Manager and later as Head of Production. He set up Smart Films and has production-managed content for The Walt Disney Company, Channel 5 and BAFTA and Broadcast Award-winning series for production company Darrall Macqueen for whom he is currently serving as Line Producer on a 14-part family drama for a major US streaming service. He has served on the executive board of the New Producers Alliance, The Production Managers Association and is a member of BAFTA.
Just some of the festivals MOUSIE has screened at include the Ireland Dublin International Film Festival, the Miami Jewish Film Festival and the Woods Hole Film Festival where it received the Best Youth Performance Award.