His father was a tattooist in a small town in Angus, talented and charismatic. At his funeral, the son, who briefly returns home from the cosmopolitan world of fine art his father encouraged him to enter, ponders on how different his life might have been had he stayed.

His childhood sweetheart still works at his father's tattoo parlour.

Would he have been happier now if he'd never gone away?

Take away the finer detail and the son represents so many of his generation who have chased careers which, they one day realise, have cut a chord between themselves and their roots.

The story is a fiction, the work of Newcastle-born Jules Williamson, and the subject of her 16-minute mini-movie Tattoo, which has received a Bafta best short film nomination. Results will be broadcast live this Sunday night.

But it has resonances with Jules's own life, except that, at the age of 38 and on the very real precipice of big things, she has sold her fancy Primrose Hill flat and bought a three-bedroom house with a garden in Spittal Tongues, Newcastle.

"I needed grown-up things like my own front door and a staircase," she says. "I always find it incredible that you can buy this for what you'd pay for a one-bedroom flat in London."

Fortunately for Jules, a close group of her friends have remained in the region. Her mother is still here, though retired now from the life of hotelier she shared with Jules's late father when they ran two businesses in Osborne Road, Jesmond.

But it's not just the homebody in her that has encouraged her back; as a film maker, the region is full of inspiration.

"It has soul," Jules says. "I think that's the word that best sums it up."

Her other three projects under way centre on the North-East.

The first is a film based on the Newcastle band Cryogenic. It's a blend of drama and documentary, an idea which strongly appeals to her.

It follows the lives of the band members, and yet they are given a script. "It gives it a slight dramatic twist, though in fact all the things that happen to them are taken from real life."

And there's another parallel with her own life. "The band are kind of at the same stage in their careers as I am," she says. "On the brink, hopefully, of tangible success. But we're also trying to create normal lives for ourselves.

"I want to carry on making films, but have a garden and staircase. They have no material possessions. Interestingly, the band's girlfriends have really good jobs and own the house and the furniture and so on."

Does Jules get broody? "Very. And I would never sacrifice a good relationship for my career and go off and chase my ambitions."

Big words for someone who finds herself in the same position as once did Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese and the like.

The short film is a showcase, a place where talented up-and-coming directors, producers and actors cut their teeth and make their name.

"Some are touching, some make a point, some are just pure entertainment," a British Academy spokeswoman said of this year's nominated shorts.

Twenty five years ago short films might have been shown ahead of the main feature where we now have popcorn adverts. This still happens occasionally, though your best chances are at film festivals and you might catch something on Channel 4 late at night.

"It's a bit disheartening," sighs Jules's producer Arabella Croft. "It's about five months' work and you get all excited about it going out on TV to find they've stuck it in the post-1am slot."

Jules, Arabella and a third partner have formed Three Sisters Films and own the rights to Melvin Bragg's semi-autobiographical novel The Soldier's Return. Bragg was moved by the similarity of his character's story with that of Jules's father, who also returned to the North after fighting in Burma.

They also have Dougray Scott (star of Enigma) signed up for it. Preliminary funding has been raised, though they're not yet home and dry.

"You have to work your way there very slowly," says Arabella. "No-one's going to give a new director a £3m budget until she has really established herself."

So there's the Cryogenic film to come, and a couple of others set in the region.

One is based on the Newcastle singles scene, "where people get to a certain age in their lives when they've got all this baggage," Jules says. "I've never seen a love story set in Newcastle."

Local writer Julie Blackie is providing the script and Jules hopes to use a couple of actors whose own lives mirror the theme.

"It's that mixture of drama/documentary again, using real people as backgrounds."

The second is based in the greyhound world, and tells the story of a 12-year-old girl who, while finding her own answers in life, manages to sort out those of the male members of her family.

"It's a rites of passage film," Jules says.

She is nursing a hangover from having spent too long partying the previous evening with members of Cryogenic. She is staying at the Malmaison Hotel on the Quayside.

"It's the only place we could get as everywhere was booked up with the Man City game," she says. Normally she wouldn't be anywhere near so extravagant.

There are a lot of budding directors on the British scene and you watch your wallet while you wait for the big time.

Having come from a television background, however, Jules has freelance work in Manchester to help her through the move back to Newcastle.

"I think Newcastle is quite a melancholic city. And when you're here you can't help but tap into people and their lives. You feel very connected in that way. Whenever I've been here I've always come up with ideas. It's never even been a conscious thing; it just happens."

Jules initially set out as an actress and spent three years at drama school.

But the life of an actor is hard, and after three fringe plays in London she wasn't sure it was for her.

"It's a vulnerable existence," she says.

Film got under her skin after working as a floor runner on the Newcastle-based Stormy Monday, when she got to hold umbrellas over the heads of the likes of Tommy Lee Jones and Sting and follow the directing process with an eagle eye.

It was directed by Mike Figgis, a North-East son at the top of the global pile like Ridley and Tony Scott and Mortal Kombat man Paul Anderson.

"He was really wonderful, and really encouraging to me," Jules says.

As well as rearing a wealth of directing talent, the region has been the backdrop to an ever-growing list of atmospheric films.

"I think it is quite fashionable now," Jules says.

"But at the end of the day you have to come up with the things you really feel passionate about to engage other people's interest."

Wish her every success for Sunday's awards.

Copyright 2002 Newcastle Chronicle & Journal Ltd