Sam Hume from Sudbury excited for solo film premiere of Phonetime focusing on the queer community at London Independent Film Festival

An actor and producer from Suffolk is gearing up for the premiere of his first solo film at the London Independent Film Festival next week.

Sam Hume, from Sudbury, is preparing for the release of Phonetime which focuses on the queer community, at Genesis Cinema on Wednesday, April 19.

The 30-year-old, who has been acting for about 15 years, is looking forward to the event and is grateful to have the chance of creating something that could mean a lot to people.

Sam said: “Of course, I’m very, very excited for the release, although I’m maybe a little bit nervous as it is my first solo film that I’ve played to a worldwide audience.

“But I’m very proud of the work that’s been done, and we had a fantastic cast and crew, so now I’m just so really thrilled to get it out there.”

“The film is really a celebration of how far our country has come in terms of acceptance and equalising the rights for the queer community.

“I showed the initial script to several friends who identify as queer and it resonated deeply with them so I hope it’s something that people of all walks of life can be proud of.”

Phonetime is a drama set in 1950, about a couple that are separated by circumstance but plan on being reunited, except Peter the protagonist, who is played by Sam, is now married with a child.

The eight-minute film was one of 60 selected for the festival from thousands of entrants worldwide and picked up an award for Best Sound Design and Music at the Los Angeles Film Festival last week.

As well as playing the main character, Sam was also the writer, producer and editor of Phonetime, and the filmmaker explains why he enjoys both acting and producing.

“Being an actor means there’s so many ups and downs, it really is like a rollercoaster," Sam said.

“It's incredible when you get a call saying you've booked a part, and then you get lost in the world of that story for a few months and just have fun with it, but the competition out there is so tough.

“There’s about 80,000 registered professional actors in the UK so it really is a constant battle to evolve and improve yourself to keep up with everyone and stand out. That's why I started producing my own work as well, to give myself more work and to be able to offer to others too.

“With the producing side of things, it's like trying to fit all the pieces of a puzzle together but without knowing what the final image is going to look like and then it's satisfying when it all clicks into place.”

Although Sam hugely enjoys producing and is still learning and exploring that direction, he ultimately prefers to do acting.

“They're both satisfying for different reasons but I love acting, especially in other peoples projects because you can focus solely on the work and not worry about logistics,” he said.

“Producing is its own skillset and it's very much admin based, but there’s a lot more mini-rewards for producing though. It’s like little wins as you go along, such as securing the location, getting the perfect director on board, and a great cast you really wanted.

“But overall, it's acting that's my main passion as that’s where my heart will always be.”

Sam’s next film, The Phoney, is in the final stages of post-production, with an aim to release later this year.

The actor has also been sent about 300 scripts in the last week from different writers across the country as he begins looking to produce something else and also starts work on producing a dark comedy feature film that he’s been perfecting the script for over the last couple of years.

Sam said: “It's a really exciting couple of years on the horizon for me and it’s about just building more and more momentum now.”