Universities & Research · Durham University
Durham University: Filmmaker and Podcaster in Residence
Since 2021 I have been a Durham University filmmaker in residence, working within the Faculty of Arts and Humanities on films and podcasts that bring research, academic life and public humanities to a wider audience. This page brings together that residency work alongside the wider films I have made with departments, research centres and individual academics across the University over more than a decade.
Films made with Durham University
Forgotten Voices: Third Reich Elite Schools Documentary
A four-year documentary made with historian Dr Helen Roche, gathering first-hand testimony from former Napola pupils across Germany.
Classics in the North East
Presented by Professor Edith Hall, tracing the connections between ancient Greece and Rome and the people, places and culture of the North East.
Academic Filmmaking: Women in Parenthesis
Documenting the legacy of four groundbreaking women philosophers, made with the Women in Parenthesis project.
Caprice in the Time of Covid
An inaugural lecture film with Professor Richard Scholar, exploring caprice through conversation, landscape and performance in lockdown Durham.
The Multilingual Pleasures of English
A film with Richard Scholar exploring French words that turned English, made for IMEMS.
Research Celebration: Why Celebrate the Humanities?
Fourteen academics reflect on why humanities research matters, from refugee poetry to faked gospels and food history.
Robert Grosseteste
A public event exploring the medieval writings of Robert Grosseteste, made for the Being Human Festival.
Through A Glass Darkly
A Durham University and National Glass Centre collaboration on medieval colour and light.
Binding the Bard
Bookbinder Dominic Riley and the judging of an international competition to rebind Durham’s copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio.
Filmmaker and Podcaster in Residence
I have been a Durham University filmmaker in residence since 2021, working within the Faculty of Arts and Humanities on films, podcasts and screenings that explore research, academic life and public humanities. The residency sits alongside the wider project work above, made over more than a decade with departments, research centres and individual academics across the University.
Some of the residency’s shorter output takes the form of quick films for the Institute of Advanced Study, made around a different theme each term. Recent examples have covered subjects from medieval science to the history of far-right movements in Britain and moral injury among drone pilots, alongside longer-form work like Forgotten Voices and Classics in the North East above.
A Podcast as Well as a Camera
Alongside the films, the residency also includes producing a podcast series for the Faculty, something I picked up partly out of necessity during a pause in filming work early on, and partly because sound production was already familiar territory from years of DJing and music production. Recording days vary enormously, from a walking interview along Durham’s old mining paths to a seven-person roundtable on the Black Death, and I’ve written about that contrast in more detail in Documentary Podcast Production: Two Very Different Recording Days at Durham.
Planning a research film or podcast?
I work with universities and research centres, including departments and colleagues across Durham University, to make documentary films and podcasts that communicate research to a wider audience with care. If you are planning something similar, I would be happy to talk.
Get in touch