BIO

I'm an award winning documentary filmmaker and Senior Lecturer in Filmmaking with a PhD in Cinema of Migration from the University of Oxford. 

I have an internationally recognised profile in practice as research as a documentary filmmaker and photographer focusing on the ethical and poetic representation of minorities and marginalised communities. My filmmaking work is centred around the representation of otherness: the migrant identity in New York, Italy and the UK; indigenous cultures in Thailand, Nepal and India; men as warriors in Basha Miao Village (China) and women and babies in prison. A central facet of my work is the ethical encounter between the filmmaker and the represented subject; as a self-shooting director this typically requires me to film in restricted and uncontrolled spaces, ranging from a mother-and-child prison unit in Rome to jungles in Northern Thailand, bordering with Myanmar and Laos. My documentaries have been screened at international film events across the world including Africa, Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, Mexico, India and the United States. My academic publications have examined topics including the cinematic representation of the journey of migration, accented modes of self-representation by women migrants and the emancipatory potentials of fantasy in migrant women's resistance against violence. 

​My published monograph The dialogical gaze: the migratory journey to Italy in contemporary Italian and Romanian cinema investigates the way in which the character of the Romanian migrant is represented in their encounter with Italy, on their physical, temporary, or imaginary journey between memory and desire. The dialogical gaze paradigm can act as a model to create opportunities for cultural interdiscursivity and social empathy in the wider cinema environment. The book was published with the patronage of the Romanian National Film Archive/ Arhiva Nationala de Filme and the Romanian Academy in Rome.

​QUALIFICATIONS

• Doctor of Philosophy, Cinema of Migration, University of Oxford
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCert)
• MA Documentary by Practice, Royal Holloway, University of London 
• BA (Hons) Italian Literature & Theatre, University College London (UCL)

​LECTURESHIPS
Present Appointment 
​Senior Lecturer in Filmmaking, Kingston University, London (2022-ongoing)​

Previous Appointments

• Lecturer in Film & TV. University of Bristol (2019-2022)
• Lecturer in Film Production. Middlesex University London (2016-2019)
• ​Lecturer in Film Production Technology. Birmingham City University (2008-2016)

TUTORSHIPS

• Tutor in European Cinema. University of Oxford (2014-2020)
• Personal Tutor in Documentary Film Production, Hong Kong, China. Akademeia Tutorial College (2017)

• Tutor in Filmmaking to visiting students from China. Oxford Prospects Programmes, University of Oxford (2016-2017)

SIGNIFICANT ROLES

• Deputy Director for the Centre for Practice Research in the Arts
• Level 4, Year Leader, BA Filmmaking. Kingston University London.
• Founder and organiser of the Pembroke College Film Masterclass Series. Pembroke College, Oxford University. 
• Deputy Leader of Looking China (看中国), a multidisciplinary project funded by Beijing Normal University and the Academy for the International Communication of Chinese Culture, promoting international cultural exchange through documentary filmmaking.

PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATES

• Research Team Leadership (Advance HE), 2024
• ​Safety Management in Film & TV Production. Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (2023)
• The Advanced After Effects Course. Soho Editors, London
• Apple Certification in Final Cut Pro
• Film Directing. New University of Cinema and Television (NUCT). Cinecittà Studios, Rome, Italy.

GRANTS

• ​Oxford University, Pembroke College. Sandrew Prize (2017)
• Oxford University, Pembroke College. Annual Fund Grant. Pembroke Film Masterclass Series (2014–2016)
• Oxford University, Pembroke College. Dean of Graduates Fund (2016)
• Oxford University, Pembroke College. Looking China Youth Film Project Scholarship (2016)
• Oxford Prospects Programmes & Beijing Normal University. 'Charm, Ethnography,  Culture'. Tutorials Plus Funds (2016)
• Oxford University, Pembroke College. Graduate Travel Fund (2016)
• Oxford University, Pembroke College. Dean of Graduates Fund (2016)
• Oxford University, Pembroke College. Sander Travel Prize (2015)
• Oxford University, Pembroke College. Graduate Travel Fund (2015)
• Oxford University, Pembroke College. Graduate Travel Grant (2014)
• Oxford University, Pembroke College. Dean of Graduates Fund (2014)
• ​University College London. Erasmus Scholarship (2002–2003)
• La scuola in versi/School in Rhyme, Salerno. International Poetry Prize (2002)

MEMBERSHIPS
​The Oxford Union 
The National Liberal Club
The Lansdowne Club​

Filmmaking in Nuwakot (Nepal, 2018)

 Meeting the locals (Nuwakot, 2018)

Studio Filming 
Curzon Street Studios (Birmingham, 2015)