Inside Keiynan Lonsdale’s visionary short film, 'Operation Heart Defence'

WORDS Keiynan Lonsdale PHOTOGRAPHY Tig Terera & Kardelen Ozturk PUBLISHED Fri, 6 Mar 2026 - 2:15 pm

I needed this project... for so many reasons. Partly to prove to myself that I can put my money where my mouth is, but mostly to climb the ‘impossible’ mountain of ideas I have and pull them off, rather than keeping myself up at night with new ones cramming my mind on repeat. It was well and truly time for me to get moving on the visual world for my next album, but I knew I needed to close out my previous mixtape project with something unforgettable.

And that’s exactly what happened — I began rounds upon rounds of creative decks, (where I go to make tangible the visions I see when I’m dancing and singing them up at night in my home studio... or any intimate space where I feel safe enough to rock out and get very weird). I had some pushback from the sane people in my life. This was very ambitious and yet another delay to my next album, but fortunately, I rallied some other similarly insane creatives on board and they all thought it was a great idea.

My director Neil Sharma, choreographer Caetlyn Watson, dance producer Sherri Burton, and stunts co-ord Richard Cotta were the first people onboard, and without their affirming belief (& our other crazies brought on along the way), this would simply not exist. I said to my manager Sammy, “I don’t know if this will be deemed successful from a numbers standpoint, but what I do know is that it’s going to be a one-of-a-kind experience for anyone who gets to be part of it, both in the making of the thing and in the viewing of the work... that’s the sh*t I’m here to do... move people.” She said she saw a look in my eyes of pure knowing, and that it was enough to support me through it and start building a real campaign that would act as a bridge into my next music era.

Here are a few of the beautiful humans I got to work and grow with to make Operation Heart Defence, as well as some shots with loved ones and community we got to celebrate with on release day at The Plaza Hotel Sydney. Thanks to Soho House, we got to play our film on the big screen and do it in style.