Glass Houses

Description

Glass Houses tells the tale of a pair of neighbours - Maureen and Ben. Maureen is a long established figure in the neighbourhood, disliked by most but tolerated as a leader of Neighbourhood Watch. Ben on the other hand is the literal ‘new kid on the block’, bringing noise, parties and what Maureen suspects is criminal activity. She takes it upon herself to investigate and eventually reports Ben to the police for suspected drug dealing.The police arrive at his house ready to arrest but he comes up clean. Maureen peeks over the garden fence. Ben infers that Maureen musty be responsible and jokingly reveals to the police that they should investigate her as she’s been paying a lot of attention to a mound in her back garden. The police leave, heading next door to warn Maureen about wasting police time. She wont answer the door but they know she’s in as they saw her over the fence. Worried for her safety, they head around the back and find Maureen hastily trying to move her garden furniture to hide the unusual mound in her back garden which is later revealed to be the plot of her murdered husband’s burial site.

Biblical Connection

‘Glass Houses’ uses John 8:7 - 'He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her’ as its source. It is the story of Jesus forcing the Pharisees, who are so filled with single-minded hate to consider their own sins as they are about to condemn a woman to death. I wanted to adapt it to the modern day, switching the genders, employment and sins but keeping the lesson about how only those who are faultless have the right to pass judgment upon others, which of course, as humans none of us are. I wanted to play with the idea of being so judgemental, and so in someone else’s business that you cause your own downfall. There is something very karmic about being punished for not minding your business and trying to get someone else in trouble, Please note: I slightly adapted the phrasing from the bible in the pitch film. The phrase was bastardised through my childhood as 'thou without sin, cast the first stone’ and so that’s what I’ve used to keep it true to how people I know speak - the concept is exactly the same as the Bible.