Ames Pennington (they/them) is a writer, director and artist. They are also a northerner – they think it’s important you know that. They make films, performances and collaborative projects about class, sexuality and gender.
Ames has made art with their family, residents in a care home and clients at a queer hair salon. They like wearing wigs and telling stories. Their work challenges who gets to express themselves, share their experiences and under what terms. Growing up, TV was their best teacher, so using humour and pop culture come naturally. They employ these tools to gently pull at the seams of what is ‘acceptable’ or ‘normal’, whether that is critiquing the health and wellbeing industry, what kinds of Trans stories are told, or who we imagine our queer ancestors to be.
Ames has made work within institutions as well as self-organised groups and in the public realm. They have been commissioned by TATE Liverpool, Battersea Art Centre, Studio Voltaire, PEER Gallery, In-situ,QUAD, Heart Of Glass, Left Coast, Homotopia, The National Festival of Making, Newlyn Gallery and LADA.
Their independent debut feature, TOPS, is a genre-busting documentary inspired by chaotic 90s British TV. At BFI FLARE Festival 2024 it was named in both Evening Standard and AnOther Mag’s Top 10 picks of the festival, winning the Audience Award at Bradford Queer Film Festival and long listed for a BIFA Maverick Award 2024. With huge success in the UK festival circuit TOPS also went on to screen internationally: including GAZE International LGBTQIA+ Film Festival, Dublin; Kashish Pride Film Festival, Mumbai; NEWFEST LGBTQIA+ Film Festival, New York; and Crossings, Norway.
In 2023, their short film Where’s Danny? won the Iris Prize’s Community Award in 2023, the same year they were a finalist at Screenshot – a comedy writing and performing competition hosted by SISTER and South of the River Pictures