Heritage & Museums
Films shaped around place, memory, collections and public history
I make Heritage & Museums Films about historic sites, collections, craft, restoration and the people who keep the past alive. Careful, atmospheric work that respects the subject and the spaces it inhabits.
Selected Heritage & Museums Films
Shakespeare First Folio Conservation
A short film documenting the conservation of Durham’s copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio, held in Cosin’s Library at Palace Green Library.
Museum Documentary Film: The Making of The Faith Museum
A documentary capturing the creation of the Faith Museum at Auckland Castle, from curatorial vision and architectural design through to installation and opening.
Public Art Installation Film: Peace Doves at Durham Cathedral
A short documentary capturing the creation and unveiling of an installation of 15,000 paper doves at Durham Cathedral, each carrying a personal message, prayer or hope for peace.
Community Archive Documentary: Unlocking North East Jewish Heritage
A documentary exploring efforts to uncover, preserve and share the North East’s Jewish heritage through archive material, community memory and local history.
Heritage Project Filmmaker: The Making of The Spanish Gallery
A documentary following the creation of the UK’s first gallery dedicated to Spanish Golden Age painting, housed in a restored 19th-century building in Bishop Auckland.
Cultural Heritage Filmmaking: Millwright Jon McGuinness and Warwick Bridge Corn Mill
A documentary portrait of traditional millwright Jon McGuinness and his work preserving and restoring Warwick Bridge Corn Mill in Cumbria.
Industrial Heritage Documentary Film: Blacksmith at Bowes Railway Museum
One of three short films documenting heritage skills and traditional craft at the world’s oldest working standard gauge rope-hauled railway in Springwell, Gateshead.
Heritage Filmmaker at Bowes Railway: The Joinery Workshop
A heritage filmmaker documentary following the joinery workshop at Bowes Railway Museum, building the timber top of a replica coal tub in Gateshead.
Greenhouse Restoration Documentary Film: Felton Park
A greenhouse restoration documentary film following the repair of a rare, early nineteenth century curvilinear glasshouse at Felton Park in Northumberland, one of only two or three of its kind still standing in the UK.
How I work
Heritage & Museums Films need to work in several registers at once. They need to be informative without becoming didactic, atmospheric without losing clarity, and personal without being sentimental. The best heritage films feel like a door opening onto a subject rather than a lecture about it.
My approach to Heritage & Museums Films begins with time — time spent in the space, with the people, and around the objects before any filming starts. Historic environments have their own rhythms and their own light. Understanding those things before picking up the camera produces better material than rushing to capture everything on the first visit.
I work carefully in sensitive environments. I have filmed in cathedrals, working museums, historic houses, archives, galleries and live restoration sites, and I understand the care that is needed when working around fragile objects, live visitors and irreplaceable spaces. Heritage & Museums Films need a filmmaker who will slow down, pay attention, and find the story that is already there rather than imposing one from outside. Partners have included The Auckland Project, Durham Cathedral, National Trust, Bowes Railway Museum and English Heritage.
Types of work
Heritage & Museums Films for interpretation and public engagement. Museum and gallery documentary. Historic building and restoration films. Craft and traditional skills documentation. Oral history and community memory. Cathedral and site-specific films. Films for funders, trustees and archive. Shorter edits for social media and partner channels.
Planning a film about heritage, a museum or a historic site?
I work with museums, heritage organisations, historic houses, cathedrals and cultural trusts to make films that feel right for the subject and the space. If you are planning a film that needs patience, care and a strong sense of place, I would be happy to talk.
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