The thread that runs through the broad range of subjects I choose for my films is that of identity. I am most interested in both the conscious and unconscious ways in which we carve out individual identities whilst being citizens of a global world, and to what extent the media influences this construct. In my films I seek to capture slices of time during which the places and characters will not only reveal physical landmarks but emotional ones too.
In 2008 I directed Anyway, Who Are You?, [included in this application]a short documentary commissioned by Channel 4 and the British Film Institute. The brief was to produce a film using archival material that would make a statement about contemporary Britain. I wanted to make a film that would show refugees and asylum seekers in a way they are not traditionally presented. I wanted to focus more on the experience of being a displaced human being, something any person around the world could relate to, rather than focus on the hard statistics of asylum and the legal points of each case. Because immigration is such a divisive issue in the United Kingdom I felt strongly that too often individual stories get obliterated by political rhetoric and that this short film could be a small antidote to that. Anyway, Who Are You? was broadcast on Channel 4 (UK) in May 2008 along with 3 others in the ‘Britain Recut’ series.
Currently I am directing an independent feature length documentary about middle age and how men living in the UK are experiencing it. I am also directing a short film about the 2008 American presidential election as told through the eyes of a British political activist who travelled to America to campaign for Obama and later returned to attend the Inauguration.
In 2000 I directed a short documentary – New York Before The Bomb - about the pre-millennial media maelstrom in New York City and how ordinary New Yorkers and tourists were responding to it.
For the second year I am co-programming the documentary strand of the London Independent Film Festival, and prior to moving to London I associate produced a 14 hour documentary series about World War II for American public television [The War, directed by Ken Burns] which was also an official selection at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.I studied documentary film and American history at New York University where I received a BA. In 2006 I received an MSc from The London School of Economics in Imperialism, Colonialism and Globalisation.
