Bex Jones

'Henry' was the first film I made at film school. My editing tutor had set me the task of writing a short with no dialogue. Other briefs had included making the film about a relationship gone wrong, setting it in one location and for budget reasons, with as few props and expensive equipment as possible.

One day I was cleaning the studio after an exercise, using a Henry vacuum cleaner; one of the ones with a pair of eyes and a smile on them. It was gazing up at me; playful but at the same time, creepy. I was tempted to tell it to stop looking at me like that. Then the idea struck me. We treat machines as if they had minds of their own all the time. Was it so extraordinary to imagine that someone could extend that interaction to a relationship?

'Henry' is the story of a man who needs a friend and finds one in the form of a vacuum cleaner. It doesn't go the way some might assume, but it doesn't end well regardless.