I’m a filmmaker with a passion for honesty and authenticity in storytelling. I’m currently working with a focus on documentary stories exploring health and wellbeing in the context of science, technology and the natural world.
Whilst I have nearly 20 years media production experience ranging from public organisations like the BBC and corporate brands like Panasonic, my work is increasingly informed by the lived experience of caring for my son through Leukaemia treatment since his diagnosis in February 2018, when he was only 3 years old.
Leaning into the pain, I made a personal film about how Art Therapy helped my wife heal from the trauma of the diagnosis and the brutal treatment we have had to nurse him through. We shared this film and were invited to screen it at the Storytelling for Health Conference in 2021.
Making the film was like a form a therapy for me. It enabled me to make sense of what had happened to our family and to take ownership of our journey. An unbroken narrative emerged from the shattered hopes and memories.
Sharing the film was transformative. Overwhelming and terrifying but transformative. The film affected people deeply and created new connections with others. It also created a new sense of direction in my work and new opportunities to grow as a filmmaker.
After seeing our film, the director of the George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling at USW, invited me to direct a 30 minute feature documentary exploring the work going on in South Wales to reduce industrial carbon emissions and how storytelling influences our understanding of the problem of climate change. The project was funded by WEFO and what was interesting about this project was that it was an academic science and industry project which had storytelling embedded within it. So I was able to draw on my scientific understanding from by BSc in Biochemistry (UKC), combine it with my narrative and conceptual thinking from my BA in Media Production (UWE) and filter it through my lived experience of trauma and uncertainty.
Also as a result of seeing the film, I was invited by a Social Care research organisation at Swansea Uni called Developing Evidence Enriched Practice (DEEP) to make about film about how their approach and process of bringing lived experience to inform research in care and learning. With this project I was able to bring a personal and human storytelling documentary approach to the individual story of Trevor – a businessman who receives daily care due to MS – and relate his story to the larger story of the DEEP approach which facilitates dialogue between individuals receiving care, individuals delivering care, care organisations and policy makers. In this project, which was funded by Welsh Government, I drew upon my lived experience of caring for my son and dealing with healthcare organisations as well as my understanding of teaching and learning from three years as an FE & HE teacher in Weston College.
I am currently exploring my filmmaking process from an academic research perspective in the form of autoethnographic methodology. I am working towards a proposal for a PhD by Portfolio which will question how creative practice and narrative can help us live with uncertainty.
Check out my CV for more info:
EIF CV Creative:Producer:Director 2023