About

I am an Associate Professor of Practice which means my achievements in film making and art have achieved international reach and recognition.

I co-programme lead the new MA Film and Screen Production and formerly led the MA Writing for Performance. 

I am a feature film screenwriter and director and I also specialise in teaching writing and directing short film. I have supervised thousands of successful shorts from script to production in both the UK and abroad since I began teaching the form in 2001.

I am passionate about student-centred learning. I enjoy supporting and exploring creativity with all the students I teach and mentoring them to find their own unique voice.

I support colleagues as a Line Manager and serve on the College Research Committee, the College Research Ethics Committee, the University Equality and Diversity Committee and the Awarding Gap steering Committee in Arts. I am an active filmmaker, artist and researcher. I am a University Ethics Champion in Arts and an Aurora Mentor for the Leadership Foundation.

Research interests

I am currently the leader of the Lovability Research Group, which aims to illuminate and contribute to debates around all kinds of inclusivity. Our manifesto is research motivated by compassion and empathy. My work for the Group includes my film The Carer (2016) which was made by a mixed crew of students and professionals and went on to win 9 international awards, (including a Humanitarian Award) across 2016 and 2017. I also co-produced the feature film Mark’s Diary (2019) Directed by Italian filmmaker Giovanni Coda, the award-winning film centres on the love story between two gay men who are physically disabled and asks: Is sexuality a human right? And, if so, how do we as a society protect and uphold those rights? My research has always taken an intersectional approach to questions of equality, diversity, the different and differently-abled. I am currently working on a GCRF funded project with women artists in Mexico, with colleague Professor Angela Bartram.

I am also a member of the Animal research group led by Professor Bartram and Professor Steve Baker in the field of Animal Studies. For this group, I am editing a section of a book and writing a chapter for it.

Recent publications

'A Woman's World'. What happens in the daily life of a woman in a DAC nation? What challenges do they face; what delights do they encounter? This artistic research project captures the daily activities of young women living in Mexico or of Mexican descent. The video tells the story of a month that is normal, domestic, and part of the personal and every day for these women.

All the small Things Artspace, 11 - 21 Sept 2021

Confinement DMU, 19 - 25 April 2021

Otherlings Artspace, 18 Oct - 08 Nov 2019

Membership of professional bodies

Writers Guild and Directors Guild.

Professional interests

• Equality Diversity and Inclusion
• Narrative Film
• Photography
• Script and Screenwriting
• Animal Studies

Qualifications

• BA English/Philosophy, University of Waikato NZ
• BSc Sociology, University of Waikato NZ
• Post Grad Dip in Higher Learning, Unitec NZ
• PhD, University of Deby 2015

Recent conferences

Life With and Without Animals Conference, 7 November 2020

Experience in industry

For selected filmography as writer/director please see my profile on LinkedIn, or IMDb. Having also been script supervisor on over 30 international (mostly American) feature films I also have plenty of on-set experience of working with practitioners of all the film crafts and a well-developed knowledge of film grammar. Parallel to teaching, I have sustained a 20-year career in screenwriting, commissioned by both independent production companies and by state funding agencies. I have also written and directed television dramas in New Zealand and in Canada.

International experience

I am a multi-award-winning writer/director and have had films in dozens of international film festivals and competitions, and sales in many territories internationally. I was formerly Head of Screen Arts at the Unitec School of Performing and Screen Arts in Auckland New Zealand and have worked as a crew on dozens of international screen projects.

Teaching responsibilities

I lead and teach into the MA Film and Screen Production and supervise PGR students.

Additional interests and activities

I'm a generalist with multiple interests and enthusiasms. I am currently setting up an art and design collective, the ethos of which is 'curiosity led design'.