Los Angeles-based director and photographer Liza Mandelup, known for her work for Vogue, Dazed and i-D, talks about her new film Sundown about a summer retreat for teenagers with Xeroderma Pigmentosum, a genetic disorder that renders them extremely sensitive to sunlight:

“I originally wanted to make a film about the night—something that had a unique relationship with darkness, that needed the night time in order to exist. While researching a way to weave together different stories I came across the camp.

"I was invited to go and spend time at the camp that summer. It was an amazing experience just hanging out with the campers. For them, their time there is so precious. It’s the only time all year they can be with other kids who live without sunlight, so every moment we spent filming felt like they were allowing us to be part of something fleeting.

"It felt like a reverse society—some sort of fantasy that these kids had dreamt up, that if the world was made for them it would look like this. The community that formed around the camp turned something that's been a source of pain and struggle for these kids into something positive."