Mervyn and Irene: Maggie's Merseyside Promotional Video, 2017
This is one of two films I made with Maggie's Merseyside, a cancer charity and advice centre based at Clatterbridge Hospital on the Wirral. Mervyn and Irene speak about how Maggie's has helped them over the years since Mervyn's cancer diagnosis.
Wojtek (November 2014)
Official selection of the Ojo Cojo Film Festival, Madrid 2015
Produced for the final research module of the MA in TV Documentary course at the University of Salford in collaboration with Europia Manchester, an NGO that provides support to East European migrants in the north-west of England. Kush Chottera at Europia introduced me to a number of his clients and contacts, one of whom agreed to work with me to make a film. I wanted to use the documentary form to counter prevailing stereotypes of immigrants as scroungers and spongers. Wojtek's story, I hope, succeeds in doing this and reveals the qualities of courage and endurance that many immigrants develop as a result of their experience.
A Way of Life (May 2014)
Official selection of the Fuencaliente Rural Film Festival 2014
Produced for the Advanced Production module of the MA in TV Documentary course at the University of Salford. Welsh sheep farmer, Chris Hughes, agreed to let me film on his farm during the lambing season. The idea was to show a lamb being born and released into the fields with Chris' voiceover talking about the economics of sheep farming; the tune of The Lord's My Shepherd coming in at the end provides a sort of ironic comment on how we're not so different from sheep ourselves.
The Band Plays On (January 2014)
Produced as part of the Creative Development module of the MA in TV documentary course at the University of Salford. Over a period of two months, I filmed the Weaver Valley Accordion band in rehearsal and performance, and interviewed seven of their members to get a sense of what inspires them. I hope the resulting film provides a clear-eyed portrait of a group of people drawn together by their passion for music.
Creepy Crawlies (December 2013)
An editing project produced for the Post-Production module of the MA in TV Documentary course at the University of Salford. Supplied with a batch of rushes all relating to the animal exhibits at Liverpool Museum, I chose to focus on one of the interviewees whose job it is to mount the insect specimens in preparation for exhibition. I wrote an original script, edited the footage in Adobe Premiere and recorded the voiceover myself. Note the concluding nod to Psycho . . .
Perfect Day at Priestley College (July 2013)
A sort of music video I threw together in my final week as a teacher at Priestley College in Warrington. All the teachers featured now have to live with this being on Youtube forever.
Salud y Vida: Los Tsachilas (June 2011)
The first of two films I made in collaboration with Max Moreno and his family in Ecuador. Having worked as a doctor in many different parts of Ecuador, Max knows the country intimately and took it upon himself to make a TV series about the health issues associated with its various different communities. Funded by Ecuador Public Television, he succeeded in making around twelve separate episodes, shooting with just a basic HD Sony camcorder and editing in a make-shift editing studio in his office in Quito. For this episode, Max took us to Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas in the north-west of the country where we filmed the Tsachila people who are the only indigenous community to survive in that region. Famed for their ayahuasca ceremonies which attract tourists both within the country and from abroad, they are, as Max argues, "traditional psychotherapists" - offering alternative treatments for mental and emotional problems associated with modern urban life.
Salud y Vida: Afroesmeraldeños (July 2011)
In this episode of Salud y Vida, Max and his daughters go to the port of Esmereldas and up the Cayapas river in northern Ecuador, to meet the predominantly black communities that occupy that region - descendants of slaves brought there by the Spanish conquistadores. I haven't got round to adding subtitles to this one yet, so you have to follow it in Spanish for the time being.