A Tuscan Summer • Summer 24⁠

Listen to the full track →
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/4xWFNq...
Apple Music:   / lemeney-single  
Amazon Music: https://www.amazon.co.uk/music/player...

For Summer 24, we are taking you to Tuscany. This season’s short film accompanies folk singer and nature appreciator Sam Lee on a journey through green valleys and cypress avenues, between umbrella pines, meadows bursting with poppies and tiny hilltop towns. There we met many wonderful people - some of whom you’ll see in the film - and were serenaded by some exceptionally beautiful birds.

We filmed Sam on a journey of curiosity, singing the folk song of nature adoration, ‘Sweet Lemeney’, amid the distinctive landscape of the Arezzo region - foraging for impressions, sounds and objects. A hare bell, the song of a nightingale (Sam’s muse and collaborator), a sunset view. Though very much an English song, we found all of the bird voices it names in Arezzo - nightingales, turtle doves, sky larks as well as golden orioles and nightjars.

This film was shot on 16mm, on an Arri 416 📽️

Join the waiting list at https://ffern.co/

A Note on Sweet Lemeney

The traditional song ‘Sweet Lemeney’ is an aubade - a song for the morning - which contains clues to a lost midsummer tradition. ‘Lemeney’ has likely emerged from the Middle English ‘leman’, a word that means sweetheart or lover. Midsummer’s Day (that’s today!) was once called Leman’s Day, and lovers would serenade one another at dawn… This version uses the Copper Family of Sussex’s words and tune.

Credits

Starring
Sam Lee

Production
Pal Studios

Written & Directed by
Peter Franklyn Banks

Producers
Angus Dunsire
Sophia Seymour

Director of Photography
Sam Finney

Music
Avery Bright

Cellist
Emily Nelson

Colour Post Production
No8 London

Colourist
Tim Smith

Costume Designer
Hope Lawrie

Location Manager
Cinzia Puggioni

Assistant Producers
Catriona Bolt
Franci Donovan-Brady

1st AC
Billy Gadd

2nd AC
Riccardo Angei

Gaffer
Gabriele Mango

Audio Post Production
Sounds Good Audio 

Sound Design 
Martin Leitner

Sound Recordist
Giacomo Verrando

Polaris Driver
Massimiliano Bianchi

Driver
Marco Molinero

Song
‘Sweet Lemeney’

Performed By
Sam Lee

Conceived by
Emily Cameron

Additional Cast
Ciolfi Brando
Alessandra Colzi
Rosa Fontana
Severoni Francesco
Della Giovampaola Ettore
Ciolfi Lapo
Valeriya Lobusova
Francesco Morè
Greta Olivelli
Marco Petrucci
Giulia Scatena
Francesco Tiezzi

With thanks to
Elina Casetti
Don Domenico
Saverio Misesti
Igor Osservanti
Giacomo Petrucci
Mariella Spinelli
Stefano & Lorenzo Tognalini
City Council Montepulciano
City Council Montefollonico (Torrita di Siena)
City Council Cortona