Jeremy Bubb - Chair
Jeremy Bubb is Chair of NAHEMI. He is an independent filmmaker, artist, and Senior Lecturer in Film Production and Cinematography, and currently completing his PhD at Middlesex University, London. His current body of work synthesizes traditional film language with multi-screen storytelling techniques and focuses on narratives of the everyday. He has directed TV commercials, short dramas and documentaries, making films in Denmark, France, Poland, Ireland and the UK for a range of clients and TV networks. His work has been screened in film festivals throughout Europe.
Jeremy has taught filmmaking in Higher Education for over twenty-five years and has been an External Examiner for several UK Universities, sat on the Southern Arts Film Board panel, and is a member of Chapter Filmworks, making films for the Welsh Arts Council and S4C. He currently organizes NAHEMI’s Eat our Shorts film festival and Talking Shop annual conference. He has published widely in The Journal of Media Practice and Education, The Journal of Screenwriting, The Journal of Arts Research, The National Archives Website, Screenworks, and written on documentary production in The Place of Poetics within Documentary Filmmaking: The Art of Fact (Cambridge Scholars), and in Teaching Documentary for the 21st Century (CILECT).
Jeremy speaks regularly at national and international conferences on film education and research, he is a graduate of the National Polish Film School in Łódź, The Northern Film School UK, and Cardiff School of Art and Design. Jeremy joined NAHEMI in 2018 and became Chair in 2020.
Lucy Brown – Deputy Chair
Deputy NAHEMI Chair, Lucy Brown is Professor of Film and Television Practice and Head of Screen at University of Westminster. She is an award-winning practitioner and educator. She has filmed around the world for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Nickelodeon and Disney on multiple BAFTA and RTS award winning programmes. She has taught at film schools across five continents and is the Founder and Chair of Women in Screen and the Trailblazing Women On and Off Screen conference. Lucy sits on the editorial board of Representology: The Journal of Media and Diversity. Her latest documentary exploring themes of female friendship and sexual violence has screened globally and won several awards. She is author of ‘Script Development on Unscripted Television’ in The Palgrave Handbook of Script Development, co-author of The TV Studio Production Handbook (Bloomsbury) and is currently co-editing a book on collaborate creativity in the film and television industries for Routledge. Lucy joined the NAHEMI Executive in 2018. She was elected Deputy Chair in 2024.
Executive Committee
Daisy Gili - Treasurer
NAHEMI Treasurer, Daisy is from a family of artists, writers and filmmakers, and grew up spending as much time as possible in cinemas, cutting rooms and dubbing theatres. Although a maths graduate, Daisy decided not to pursue a career in numbers but to enter the film & TV industry. She finds that her grounding in mathematical thought, which combines form and pattern with logic, has enhanced her own approach to filmmaking.
After working for four years in production on a series for Channel 4, then briefly on Richard Eyre’s film 'Iris', Daisy decided to return to being a student, this time of filmmaking. Unable to find a course that met her expectations, Daisy co-founded the LFA with Anna MacDonald. In addition to co-running the LFA, Daisy has produced and directed three short films, including 'The Summer House' (starring Robert Pattinson and Talulah Riley). Daisy joined the NAHEMI Executive in 2012.
Lucy Leake - Secretary
NAHEMI Secretary Lucy is an experienced Senior Lecturer in Film, and has been an External Examiner for a number of UK University courses. She works for the QAA (Quality Assurance Agency for HE) and is an educator, artist and researcher, whose work focuses on digital storytelling, student engagement, and creative approaches to Higher Education teaching and learning. Lucy has published research nationally and internationally through networks including RAISE (Researching, Advancing and Inspiring Student Engagement), CICAP (The International Congress of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising), and Advanced HE. As Associate Editor with Screenworks (Journal of Screen Media Practice Research), Lucy edited the Screenworks Special Edition on ‘Practice Pedagogies’, in partnership with the Journal of Media Practice in Education. Lucy is former Assistant Dean for Arts and Media at Arts University Plymouth, and a former Project Manager of the BFI Film Academy Plymouth. She is the NAHEMI representative for CHEAD (Council for Higher Education in Art and Design). Lucy joined the NAHEMI Executive in 2012.
Barry Dignam – Website & Membership
Barry Dignam is the Vice Dean European University (FilmEU) at IADT, Dun Laoghaire. His team deliver Erasmus Mundus Master programs in Film, Sound, Film Heritage & Culture and the first Joint International BA in Film “Pathfinder”. Formerly he was the Head of Department of Film & Media, Chair of Film & Television and Irish Course Director of Viewfinder (the Erasmus+ Joint Master of Art in Cinematography). He is Chair of the European Grouping of Film Schools (GEECT) and serves on the Executive Council of the International Association of Film Schools (CILECT). As an educator, he has over twenty years’ experience in teaching, academic strategy and leadership. He studied Drama at Trinity College Dublin and Film at the National Film School IADT. As a filmmaker, he has made many multi-award-winning short films including ‘Chicken’, ‘Dream Kitchen’ and ‘A Ferret Called Mickey’. He’s had been nominated for a Palme d’Or at Cannes and a Berlin Bear. ‘Monged’ a feature he co-wrote with Gary Duggan premiered in 2015. His films have been presented in official selection at over a hundred and fifty international film festivals. They have been screened by top broadcasters and released on DVD, VOD and theatrically in Europe, the US and beyond.
Rafe Clayton - Festivals
Rafe Clayton is a researcher and academic at the University of Leeds, leading film theory and practice on the taught master’s degree programme. His particular interests include how the emergent and diverse uses of screens and moving images for entertainment, education, work and communication may exacerbate perceived inequalities among marginalised groups. An experienced filmmaker, Rafe is also festival director for the NAHEMI National Student Film Awards. He joined the NAHEMI Executive in 2020.
Peter Hort - Kodak Competition
Peter Hort is a film maker and film educator. After 20 years making TV drama and documentary for NDR, Channel 4, France 2, National Geographic and others, he embraced teaching and ran the film course at the University of Westminster for 14 years. He is now managing the University of Westminster film archive. Peter has been a member of the NAHEMI Executive since 2010, and runs the annual Kodak Commercials 16mm student competition.
Dr Savyasaachi Jain
Saachi is a Reader at the Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Culture (JOMEC), where he works in the areas of Journalism and Documentary, drawing upon a professional career spanning print, television current affairs, documentary, and training journalists and filmmakers internationally.
After completing his PhD at the University of Westminster, researching the applicability and suitability of Western models for understanding the behaviour of global media systems, he has taught at Swansea University, where he led the Erasmus Mundus MA programme in Journalism, Media and Globalisation (War and Conflict specialism). He currently teaches on the MA International Journalism (MAIJ) and MA Digital Documentary (MADD) at JOMEC. He has a specific focus on helping students develop longer journalistic projects, including their Master’s project/ dissertation.
He is currently engaged in an interdisciplinary applied research project, working with computer science colleagues to develop a camerawork simulator, an online tool for teaching creative decision-making skills to students of documentary and visual journalism. The project has been supported by JOMEC, the Research Wales Innovation Fund, AHRC and EHRC. Saachi joined the NAHEMI Executive in 2023.
Stefania Marangoni
Stefania Marangoni is a filmmaker and educator with 25 years' teaching experience, which has been informed by her own film work and industry practice.
For the past seven years she has been Senior Lecturer and Course Leader of the MA Editing and Post-Production at London South Bank University, where she has facilitated several creative and industry facing initiatives, including a collaboration with the V&A Glastonbury Archive.
She taught for many years at the London Film School where on a number of occasions she also acted as Head of Editing and where she delivered editing craft courses at international institutions such as MTI Kingston in Jamaica, Scuola Holden in Italy and in the UK at Leeds Northern Film School and Warwick University.
She developed an interest in the moving image while studying Fine Art and Critical Theory at Goldsmiths College, later pursuing studies in film on the PGDip in Independent Film Production at the University of Wales, Cardiff. In 2019, she graduated from UCL with an MA in Social and Cultural Anthropology, which included ethnographic and experimental filmmaking.
Funke Oyebanjo
Funke is a script consultant, lecturer and scriptwriter, and web fest curator for the Raindance Film Festival. She was one of the founder members of the Talawa Theatre Writers’ group. Her television script The Window was produced for Channel Four’s Coming Up season and she currently has three screen features in development. One of her projects The Land, was selected by Script House, for development at the Berlin film festival’s talent campus. Funke has worked as a script reader and development consultant with Arena Majicka in Norway, BBC Writer’s Room, BBC World Service, The UK Film Council, Creative England. She is Senior Lecturer at UAL, and joined the NAHEMI Executive in 2022.
Mike Parker
Mike began making films with Chilean political exiles in London before studying film at the London College of Printing. He moved to Wales in 1987, where he is still based, producing BAFTA award winning documentaries, comedy, drama and feature films, that include, the acclaimed documentary Silent Village?, the hit sitcom Satellite City, the internationally distributed police series, A Mind to Kill and the feature films Rancid Aluminium, I Know You Know and 7Lives. He also produced award-winning radio programming and the award-winning Royal Court co-production of the stage play, Gas Station Angel. He has a track record of developing new talent as a producer and moved into education in 2012 teaching at the Newport film school. He has been senior lecturer and course leader for the multi award winning BA (hons) film production course at the University of Gloucestershire since 2017 and continues work as an independent producer.
John Podpadec
John Podpadec teaches filmmaking and makes films. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in Filmmaking at The University of the West of England, Bristol with 10 years of teaching experience across BA and MA programmes in all aspects of documentary and drama film production. He takes a lead on Filmmaking Health and Safety.
Prior to working in higher education John worked for some 30 years in Broadcast and Independent Film. He started in the mid-eighties and was a co-founding member of Forum Television Co-operative, a Bristol based documentary film company. He then went on to work on many high-profile productions for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 including Horizon, Equinox, Secret History, Trouble at the Top and Blood on the Carpet, a number of which went on to win awards at BAFTA, The RTS, BEMA and The European Commission. He was the recipient of an RTS Award for Best Broadcast Cinematography in 2004.
Over many years John built strong relations with artists and those working within the arts including Daphne Wright and the Swedish video-artist Jo Billing. He was Director of Photography on three feature documentaries, Bataville, Living with the Tudors, and Jaywick directed by the artists Nina Pope and Karen Guthrie.
As a filmmaker his interests these days lie in novel and cinematic approaches to documentary. He’s passionate about 16mm film and about the need to continue to teach it to our wonderful next generation of filmmakers.
Alexandra Sage
Alexandra has been an educator and independent filmmaker for over 25 years. She is Senior Lecturer on the BA Film Production, and previously the MA Screenwriting, at the University of Roehampton, teaching both theory and practice, with a specific interest in documentary.
She is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, has an MA in Film Production from the Northern Film School UK, and has considerable past experience as a freelance film and tv sound recordist and sound editor with many screen credits.
Prior to that Alexandra initiated, funded and set up a short course training programme at Four Corners/Film; worked as a film funding consultant for the National Lottery; and worked for several years at the Arts Council of England funding and promoting artists’ film and video.
Alexandra is currently in post-production on her semi-autobiographical film about New York City and the impact of place on childhood and memory, working title East Side Stories. Her previous film as director/producer is in distribution with the British Council. Alexandra joined the NAHEMI Executive in 2024.
James Staunton Price
James is a nonfiction filmmaker, lecturer, and researcher into anti-extractivist nonfiction filmmaking and its education. Trained as an artist at Newcastle University, he was part of expanded cinema collective The Light Surgeons, working on film, installation and multi projection live performance projects. After attending the NFTS, James directed films for Channel 4, setting up the production company Field Studies in 2008, and his films were exhibited at Sheffield, HotDocs, CPH:DOX and others. In the following years he shifted from broadcast into contemporary art practice and research-creation within academia, and started lecturing, first at Brighton, MetFilm, UCL Anthropology (Open City) and more recently at Aberystwyth and the London Film Academy. He is an AHRC-funded PhD researcher between Aberystwyth with Kim Knowles, and UWE with Steve Presence, and is co-convenor of the BAFTSS Media and the Environment SIG, as well as being on the UCU Climate and Ecological Emergency Committee. James joined the NAHEMI Executive in 2023.
Muriel Tinel-Temple
Muriel is a teacher, writer, curator and filmmaker. She is Programme Leader for BA Film Production at Roehampton, where she has experience leading MA Screenwriting, and is responsible for the ‘albert’ education partnership.
Her research explores self-representation in the moving image; experimental filmmaking; found footage/archive-based films; video essays and essay films; film and TV programmes about cinema; mediated landscapes and eco-cinema. Her publications include Le Cinéaste au travail: autoportraits (2016), From Self-Portrait to Selfie: Representing the Self in the Moving Image (ed. 2019), and scholarly articles such as ‘Found Footage and the Construction of the Self’ (Ekphrasis, 2021). She has also curated several events over the years, including a two-day event focusing on the work of Jacques Perconte, Digital Landscapes (with BIMI, June 2022).
Her teaching includes a wide range of subjects, from contextual and theoretical topics, to critical practices approaches and production-based modules, specifically in non-fiction filmmaking. Muriel joined the NAHEMI Executive in 2024
John Wardle
Jon is the Director of the National Film and Television School. He joined the School in 2012 as the Director of Curriculum & Registrar, before becoming Deputy Director in 2016.
For 10 years previously, he worked at Bournemouth University in a variety of senior roles. During his career Jon has developed courses with companies as diverse as Aardman, HBO and the BBC and he is the author of a number of papers and book chapters on media education. He is Co-Director of the National Centre for Immersive Storytelling (Storyfutures Academy) and annually he leads the BFI Film Academy Talent Campus Residential.
He is a BAFTA member, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and the National Association of Television Production Executives (NATPE) and he is on the Royal Television Society Education Committee. He has a BA (Hons) in Television Production from Bournemouth University, an MBA from the University of Southampton and a Doctorate of Education from the University of Bristol.
David Wheeler
David is an inspirational teacher, Course Leader, and Avid networker experienced in production, workplace skills and pastoral areas. For David, the student experience is paramount. He developed a ‘Peer Advisor Scheme’ (mentoring and PAL) for Level 5 students to support Level 4 students - highly successful over 8 years at Staffordshire University. He is experienced in developing, re-writing and revalidating modules and courses. David was a Director of live multi-camera studios, including News, Entertainment, Events and Outside Broadcast, and supervised large teams for the BBC and Discover US. He is a well-travelled camera operator and photographer, with a science degree! and a BAFTA voting member. David joined the NAHEMI Executive in 2010 and looks after membership fees.
Honorary Members
Claire Barwell
Claire currently works as a dissertation tutor at the NFTS and External Examiner for the London Film Academy.
After working in Theatre, Claire produced and directed films for Channel 4 and worked with Terence Davies and Patrick Keiller. She was the London Region Organiser for the Independent Film and Video Makers’ Association and served as a director of the London Filmmakers’ Co-op. She has contributed to the journals Undercut and PIX, and the Journal of Visual Communication. As a Churchill Fellow she travelled to festivals in France and Canada and wrote a report on women’s filmmaking ‘A Bigger Piece of the Pie or Changing the Recipe?’ She was a founder member of the Women in Film and Television Network.
Claire was Course Leader for BA and MA Film Production at UCA Farnham until 2018 and has been an active member of NAHEMI since 2000. She was Chair of NAHEMI from 2010 – 2016.
Yossi Balanescu-Bal
Yossi is a Director, Producer and Film Educator specialising in documentary and experimental fiction. As part of a small group of active filmmakers / educators that included the avant-garde artist Malcolm Le Grice (the first Chair), and founding director of NFTS, Colin Young, (the first Treasurer), all dedicated to practice-based film education, Yossi Bal was instrumental in founding NAHEMI. Yossi helped steer the organisation (originally called the National Association for Higher Education in Film and Video), through a very long period of attacks on education and training budgets and was part of a campaign to establish Film, Television and Animation as well as media practice in general including journalism, sound/radio and new media as genuine and essential subjects of academic inquiry.
Yossi has been passionately committed to the education and training of new generations of young filmmakers. He led a newly established film department at Goldsmiths, University of London in the 1980’s, was instrumental in setting up and leading a range of very successful undergraduate and postgraduate film production programmes at the Cass School of Art, Media & Architecture, London Metropolitan University and has been pro-actively involved with the UK film industry and the media unions’ national training & education initiatives for more than three decades.
Over the years, Yossi has continued to support the formation of many talented young practitioners specialising in film, television and animation, who are working today in the UK industry as well as on the international circuit.
Together with Joost Hunningher of Westminster University, Yossi was a founder, and later Artistic Director, of the NAHEMI Eat Our Shorts Film Festival.
He was chair of Education and Training for BECTU, and was also a founder member of the editorial board of ‘Vertigo’ film magazine. He is currently on the board of Four Corners Film, the socially committed London Film and Photography Centre in Bethnal Green.
Yossi runs Bridge Films, a project he set up in partnership with his brother Alexander Balanescu, the film composer and leader of the Balanescu Quartet, aiming to foster innovative multimedia productions. These involve blending live performance of music, dance, poetry, theatre and performance art with the moving image, and explore developments in narrative film language, documentary style and cross-cultural ethnographies.
Suzie Hanna
Suzie is Emerita Professor of Animation at Norwich University of the Arts where she continues to supervise postgraduate students and engage in research.
She taught in Higher Education for over three decades, specialising in the subject areas of animation and sound design. In this time she developed international academic and industry networks, as well as maintaining her own creative practice. Her current research includes diverse collaborations with other artists, performers and academics to create original films. This work is regularly selected for public screenings including international animation and literary festivals, and conferences. Suzie creates innovative theatrical and site-specific animation. She presents papers at international symposia and industry seminars, and writes for academic journals and other publications. Her focus is on the creation of animation from documentary material, and the study of parallels in animation, poetry and sound design.
Suzie was Secretary to the NAHEMI Executive from 2010-16, and Chair of the Executive from 2016 – 2020.
Jim Hornsby
Having studied Fine Art, Jim has taught art, photography and film production. After working in secondary education he made short films for social action agencies, wrote a number of educational reports for ACE and edited a short-lived educational media journal for the BFI. Returning to teaching in the mid 1990s, he worked as Senior Lecturer in the Media departments at Goldsmiths and Bedfordshire University. Throughout his career Jim enjoyed working with young people but sometimes struggled to gain institutional support for his pedagogy ideas. After he retired, Jim ran a not-for-profit company that employed media graduates to make social action films in Luton, to help them gain professional experience and counter the town's negative media image.
Jim joined the NAHEMI Executive in 2000.