160 Characters
160 Characters brings to life the secrets buried in a vintage mobile. Director Victoria Mapplebeck’s story began a decade ago when she relegated a Nokia 8310 to the back of her kitchen drawer. As she was scrolling through the inbox before she laid it to rest, she realized she had unwittingly archived a three year text message dialogue with an ex-partner. 160 Characters begins with a personal story, but it also tells a universal story, in which we increasingly expect more from technology and less from each other.
- United Kingdom
- 2015, 11 min
- Director: Victoria Mapplebeck
- Director of photography: Victoria Mappleback
- Editor: Lisa Forrest
- Screenplay: Victoria Mappleback
- Producer: Victoria Mappleback
- Production: Tigerlily Films
Victoria Mapplebeck
Victoria Mappleback is an award winning writer and director and Reader in Digital Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London. In 1999, she wrote and directed Channel 4’s first TV and interactive documentary series, Smart Hearts, which was nominated for a New Media Indie Award. In 2015, she wrote and directed 160 Characters, an animated smartphone short for Film London. 160 Characters received a Vimeo Staff pick and has since gathered over 900,000 online hits and was recently premiered at the Picturehouse Cinema chain in London. 160 Characters won the Best Documentary Award at the 2017 Short of the Week 2017 Film Awards and was shortlisted for the Innovation category of the 2016 AHRC Research in Film Awards. Over the last three years, she has been interviewed by Wired Magazine and BBC and Sky News, discussing developments in mobile media, immersive environments and technological storytelling. She is currently in production on a smartphone short for online channel Real Lives and a 360 documentary she is developing with Ravensboune and The Arts Council of England.