Artists & Culture
Films made with artists, galleries and cultural organisations
I make Artists & Culture Films about creative practice, performance, exhibition and collaboration. Patient, observational work that stays close to the process and the people behind it.
Selected Artists & Culture Films
Bookbinding Documentary Film: Binding the Bard
A short film following bookbinder Dominic Riley in his studio and the judging of an international First Folio binding competition at Palace Green Library, Durham.
Community Arts Film: Unfolding
A film documenting Dry Water Arts Centre’s Unfolding programme in Amble — 62 events, 94 volunteers and nearly 3,000 participants exploring what community looks and feels like.
Artist Documentary Film: Most Creative Station
A short documentary about artist commissions and creative interventions at Middlesbrough Railway Station, encouraging people to see the station and town in a new light.
Dance Documentary Film: Blue Wave on Roker Beach, 2022
A dance documentary film following Blue Wave, a Co/Lab Sunderland performance staged on Roker beach with FODI, Sangini and choreographer Constance Humphries.
Printmaker Rachael Clewlow
A short documentary about printmaker Rachael Clewlow and her practice, made for Northern Print.
Artist Residency Documentary Film: Illuminating the Self
A film following artists Susan Aldworth and Andrew Carnie as they made new work in response to CANDO, Newcastle University’s research into a light-based epilepsy treatment.
Creative Technology Video: FutureMakers
A short film documenting FutureMakers, a creative technology project exploring digital making and design with young people in the North East.
The Glossary Series: Seven Printmakers at Northern Print
Seven short documentary films for Northern Print’s Glossary exhibition, each following a different artist and printmaking technique, brought together in one place.
Music Documentary Film: Witness
A documentary following composer Scanner’s Witness project, tracing a single piece of music as it passed from memory to memory across County Durham.
How I work
Artists & Culture Films require a particular kind of attention. The work being documented is often already complete in itself — a performance, an exhibition, a creative process — and the film needs to find a way to exist alongside it rather than simply record it. That means staying quiet, moving carefully and resisting the temptation to over-explain what the camera can show.
The challenge with artists and culture films is often one of timing. Creative processes are not linear, and the most interesting moments rarely announce themselves. I try to be present enough to catch those moments without becoming a distraction from them. That might mean spending a morning in a studio before any filming begins, or returning to an exhibition space at different times of day to understand how the light and the atmosphere change. It might mean sitting with an edit for longer than feels comfortable, waiting for the right rhythm to emerge rather than forcing a structure onto material that has its own logic.
I work observationally, spending time with artists and cultural organisations before and during the filming process, building an understanding of what the work is actually about rather than what it might be reduced to in a caption. The edit is where that understanding becomes a film — where rhythm, pace and selection determine whether the work on screen still feels like itself.
Artists & Culture Films need to be useful — for funding reports, public engagement, documentation and archive — but they should also feel like something worth watching in their own right. I have made films with artists, composers, poets, printmakers, bookbinders, dancers, theatre companies, galleries and cultural organisations across the North East and beyond. Partners have included Northern Print, Navigator North, Sound and Music, Northumbria University, Co/Lab Sunderland and The Auckland Project.
Types of work
Artists & Culture Films about creative process, exhibition and gallery documentation. Theatre and performance films. Dance and choreography films. Music and composer documentaries. Film poetry and experimental short forms. Public art documentation. Cultural partnership films. Films for funding reports, public engagement and archive.
Planning a film about an artist, exhibition or cultural project?
I work with artists, galleries, theatres, composers and cultural organisations to make films that stay close to the work. If you are planning a film that needs care, patience and a genuine understanding of what you are making, I would be happy to talk.
Get in touch
