Teaching/lecturing in documentary
This year I was very fortunate to work with a great group of students at the Northern Film School in Leeds. During Covid, I was a lecturer at the University of the Creative Arts, but NFS was much more hands on and involved.
The Northern Film School is predominantly geared towards fiction films, so, from the outset, my main task was to outline approaches to factual filmmaking, distinguishing them from more controlled fiction filmmaking. Making documentaries is very often about making stuff happen, so we worked hard on creating scenarios where the filmmakers could generate visuals and elicit responses from contributors and, if need be, provoke or confront them to better tell their stories.
In the end, meany teams came up with some staggeringly good films. One team traveled to New York to produce a wonderful piece evoking those heady days in the 1970s, when the Chelsea Hotel was the creative hub for photographers, filmmakers, rock stars and artists. They produced a beautifully abstracted piece examining the drive for creative fame and how for some this elusive goal has its drawbacks. Another team produced a powerful and poignant documentary telling the story of how the co-director's brain cancer diagnosis opened up a whole new world to him of friendship, community and self awareness. Another very talented group grappled with the issue of autism in sport. They showed tremendous maturity in embracing the ethical issues around the depiction of the condition and a great sensitivity in showing how one individual's challenges affect and draw in all of those closest to them.
