Directors Notes

It wasn’t until I’d invited documentary director Jerry Rothwell to discuss his latest feature Town of Runners that I realised I’d been a fan of his work for many years, through films such as Deep Water and Heavy Load. Jerry and I discuss unconventional narrators and the tricky art of conducting interviews using double translation. [...]

Town of Runners (2011) Town of Runners is a feature documentary about the fortunes of young athletes from the Ethiopian rural town of Bekoji home to the Olympic and World champions Tirunesh Dibaba and Kenenisa Bekele. The film follows two girls who are keen to follow in their hero’s footsteps as move from school track [...]

When I happened across Alvaro San José’s short Bruno I was totally taken by its lyrical, dialogue free beauty, even more so on discovering it was his debut film. Alvaro joins us this week to discuss putting together his first production and creating a story with enough space to allow the viewer to find their [...]

Bruno (2012) A world about to collapse, where amazement exists. What impresses us? What do names hide? The same old story seems to repeat itself, like a ritual. We are both contemporary and ancient all through the centuries.

If like me it’s your natural instinct to avoid online cat movies at all costs, HaZ Dulull’s epic conspiracy, battlefield short Fubar is likely to make you re-evaluate that stance. HaZ joins me to discuss reissuing a redux version of Fubar closer to his original vision for the project and the social media and multi-platform [...]

Fubar (2011) An epic story of an on-going political war told in an alternate reality with cat and dogs.

Proving that he’s lost none of his crazy, imaginative approach to storytelling since he last joined us, director Andrew W Jones returns to DN with his rock n roll musical featuring the Techno Glove-o-Love wielding, transdimensional astronaut Doctor Glamour. We discuss why having a crew with absolute confidence, faith and unquestioning loyalty to the director [...]

Doctor Glamour (2012) A genius scientist contacts another dimension to save the woman he loves, summoning a flamboyant rock & roll superhero.

Grant Orchard’s animation A Morning Stroll has been making quiet a splash across the festival circuit, picking up awards at both BAFTA and Sundance, along with an Oscar nomination. Grant joins us to discuss creating the film with Studio AKA down time and why Zombie Breakdance might be the hottest waste of time making its [...]

A Morning Stroll (2011) When a New Yorker walks past a chicken on his morning stroll, we’re left to wonder which one is the real city slicker…

Director Andrew Huang joined us in 2007 with his experimental short Doll Face. He’s back today with the online launch of his captivating art film Solipsist. We discuss meeting etiquette and drawing inspiration from a variety of sources, be they Buddhist sand paintings or fungal growths. I just wanted to make a project about the [...]

Solipsist (2011) A three part psychedelic fantasy short film about otherworldly beings whose minds and bodies converge into one entity. Solipsist will be making its online premiere later today, along with our exclusive interview with director Andrew Huang; watch this space…

We’re joined this week by BAFTA winning director Martina Amati to discuss her recently BAFTA nominated short Chalk, set on the verge of puberty, within the confines of a gymnastic training camp. Martina discusses the disruption broken bones can cause to schedules and why she’s most comfortable working underwater with non-actors. Sometimes due to limitations [...]

Chalk (2010) When a gymnast is selected for the National training camp she discovers something new about bodies, boys and friendship.

I’m a big fan of the isolated lovers on the run story structure so was naturally drawn to London directing duo Mathy & Fran’s latest film Elsewhere. The pair joined me to discuss bringing parallel scripts together, and why you should be wary when location scouting in Summer for a late Winter shoot. We kinda [...]