Black Church Bay director on the age-gap thriller and Joe Locke’s ‘subversive’ role

Black Church Bay writer-director Rhys Marc Jones tells PinkNews about his challenging age-gap mystery thriller and casting Heartstopper’s Joe Locke and Weekend’s Tom Cullen.

Jones’ feature debut follows teacher Barry (Cullen) as the fallout from one weekend has life-changing consequences.

Set in Anglesey, a small Welsh coastal village, the mystery-thriller gradually unravels Barry’s relationship with Jasper (Locke), the precocious, openly gay high school student he teaches. One weekend, the pair venture out on Barry’s boat and the sexual nature of their relationship becomes apparent.

However, when Jasper goes missing, Barry finds himself adrift in choppy waters, literally and metaphorically. Barry is torn between giving answers to Jasper’s family and exposing his long-buried secrets, or staying silent and letting the community fall apart around him.

Ahead of Black Church Bay’s London Film Festival premiere, Jones exclusively tells PinkNews that he is consistently fascinated by “themes of repression and inauthenticity, especially transgression as a result of repression.”

Barry posed an interesting dilemma for Jones. “I didn’t want to kind of sugarcoat this subject matter,” Jones explained. The film also examines an intergenerational, age-gap relationship, further complicated by the power dynamic between teacher and student.

‘He wanted to subvert his image.’

“The film shows homosexuality in the more positive, thought-thinking, sex-positive light with teenagers [Jasper and Miles (Dylan Michael)] and Barry messing this up for both of them. You have this courageous younger generation coming up against a kind of cowardice that ultimately destabilises them both and harms them both.”

Structurally, Jones’s film doesn’t immediately reveal everything, merging the age gap and the abuse of power. Jones notes: “It’s interesting to [hear] different people’s takes; the abuse of power is wrong and harmful, but it’s interesting to hear how people have digested the age gap aspect.”

Jones shares: “I deliberately wanted to try and take away the kind of baggage of the abuse of power from the off and see how people sit with this and then complicate it further. I was very conscious of it; the structure of the film is like a fantasy that becomes a nightmare. I don’t think you could say it shows it in any sort of good light, but I don’t think it is overly judgmental.”

When it came time to tell this story, it was clear Jones needed two strong performances to execute the dark, intense nature of this thriller. For Jasper, they needed a young but “comfortable performer, someone who could effortlessly pull off the role whilst also chewing on the larger thematics.” In conversation with casting director Lucy Pardee, Locke was the first name on their list.

“Lucy had him in rooms before,” Jones says of Locke. “She was like: ‘He would acclimate to an indie vibe very well.’ Joe was really interested; I think he wanted to subvert his image, as child stars often do.” Jasper is a massive contrast to Locke’s Heartstopper character.

‘A fantasy that becomes a nightmare’

In Black Church Bay, we see a more mature performance from Locke, one that brings simmering depth to a young queer character. He straddles a youthful self-confidence (declaring he “lives for the story”) with a vulnerability that shows a whole new exciting side to Locke’s acting chops.

Then, the question became finding the perfect star to not only perform opposite Locke but carry much of the film’s weight. The answer was Weekend actor Cullen. “When we got them together, it’s just so obvious it should be those two,” Jones notes.

The casting of Cullen was particularly meaningful. Jones cites Weekend as one of his favourite films, he continues: “It’s the 15th year anniversary of Weekend this year, it feels like we’re in such a healthier place. They struggled to cast that film with gay actors because there were [few] gay people well known in the industry.”

The director also adds: “He has quite a lot of intimate scenes, but he was almost like a co-director in terms of the comfort levels of everyone.” There’s one sex scene in particular that’s crucial to Black Church Bay: a lengthy moment of Barry and Jasper having sex on a boat at sea. It’s a revealing scene about the two characters’ dynamic. Jasper’s confidence is upfront, but the power imbalance between the pair underscores the scene’s intensity.

‘Not everyone’s cup of tea’

“The only thing we really rehearsed hard was that scene,” Jones recalls. “We had two boats, one on land for the interiors, and one was at sea, so we could practice the intimacy of the one that was on land.

“I’m very happy with how they’ve come out. Tom and Joe also feel good about them.”

Ultimately, Black Church Bay is, as Jones says, “not going to be everyone’s cup of tea.” The film slowly unravels itself as a test of how long you can sit with this murky protagonist as he’s buried by his own actions and secrets. 

Because of this subject matter, Jones reflects that there were struggles in financing this different perspective on the queer experience. Alongside the potentially controversial central matter, another offshoot of the film is exploring queer life outside of big cities. 

When Jones was pitching the film, he struggled with financing and was advised, “we can get X amount more money if we move it” from Anglesey. The director notes this location is important and essential. “It had this atmospheric importance that I felt was super vital to the story,” Jones says of the setting. Black Church Bay is also now a part of an unintentional queer Anglesey trilogy, joining Madfabulous and On the Sea.

“It’s also important that it isn’t forward-thinking urban and [rural] regressive. It’s nice getting out of a city to shoot, it’s always a pain in the ass, and no producers want to do it, but eveyone loves it when you do it.” 

Black Church Bay is screening at the 2026 BFI London Film Festival. A UK release date is yet to be announced.

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