Nearly 20 years in, and I’m still figuring out how this industry works. That’s not a complaint. It’s just the reality of being independent — there’s no HR department, no clear career ladder, no one tapping you on the shoulder telling you what comes next. You work it out as you go.

What Does It Actually Mean to Be a Documentary Filmmaker?

People ask me this more than you'd think. Usually at events, usually after I've explained what I do for the third time in a row. "So you make documentaries? Like the ones on Netflix?"

Sort of. Not exactly. Let me explain.

Whose Story Is It Anyway? On Preserving the Voice of Your Documentary Subjects

I’ve been making documentary films for nearly two decades. In that time I’ve sat across from miners who wept recalling 1984, drag artists who talked about identity with more clarity than most politicians manage in a career, and a duathlete from South Yorkshire who turned grief into endurance. Every single one of them had a story worth telling. My job — and this is something I genuinely believe — was never to tell it for them.