Personnel
[d]Editor Nectar
Bim is a non-linear editor, graphic designer and digital film-maker. Broadcast Magazine dubbed him a young media 'hot-shot' and one to watch. Bim is a multi-skilled creative who has edited offline and online for Channel 4 and Big Umbrella production company. Channel 4 credits include Nambia Challenge (C4), 03 and me and VeeTV. Other credits include RNID videos, SKYE, a British Deaf Association award winning short, and several deaf pop videos. Bim's software skills include AVID, DV Express, Final Cut Pro, After Effects and Macromedia Director
[d]Deaf consultant Nectar
First involved in the media production in 1982. Trained as producer with BBC's media training, carried out research work for Channel Four and BBC, presenting for BBC since 1985. Born Deaf from Deaf family and strongly active in Deaf community. Currently, lecturer/researcher at Centre for Deaf studies, Bristol and freelance interpreter for Point West News.
[d]Frida in Frida Kahlo's Corset
Isolte Avila is a Cuban born Dancer/Choreographer. She trained with the Cuban Ballet and Netherlands Dance Theatre. Isolte has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from California Institute of The Arts. Creator of Sign Dance Theatre, she has developed the artform for over 16 years collaborating with many directors, film makers and musicians. She is the co-Artistic Director for Sign Dance Collective (the international sign dance theatre company based in the Netherlands and the UK) with actor/filmaker David Bower. Recent touring productions include Carovana Productions' Livorno Italia, Named Space, and You Hide and I'll Go Blow Up The Generator
[d]Walter in Nectar
Classical training in ballet and tap gives Jacob a strong footing in comedic and physical theatre. A member of Bristol Musical Youth Productions for eight years, he appeared in major shows including Tommy and Hans Christian Anderson at Bristol Hippodrome, plus work in Disneyland Europe. Television credits include BBC dramas Pride and Prejudice, The Secret Garden and Casualty. Theatre performance includes leading roles in adaptations of Toy Story, Derek Jarman's Blue, The Nuremburg Trials, plus contemporary original works. As a Deaf actor, Jake was asked to work with Green Candle Dance Company introducing BSL to children in primary schools. His most recent work is for urban thriller Soundproof for BBC2, a full length feature to be screened in 2006. Nectar is his debut on the big screen.
[d]Walter in Nectar
As a deaf actor I have been involved in the development of the theatre of the D/deaf since the 1960s, covering a wide range of various disciplines such as mime, poetry signing, drama in theatre sign language, teaching D/deaf theatre. I also lectured at the University of Reading. I am keen on the idea of plays as well as films illustrating the power and lyrical expressiveness of Sign Language as a third dimension to the language of drama and theatre.
[d]Writer, director and producer of various Roaring Girl productions
I am a writer-director working with film, audio and text, and am founder of Roaring Girl Productions. Interested in drama, life stories and experimental work, I am drawn to the potential of storytelling to trigger change. Described as "a director of real visual flair", my work has been praised for its ability "to get under the skin of a subject". I am also an experienced trainer with a policy of including learning opportunities in production for people, particularly disabled people, who otherwise encounter barriers to entering work in the creative media. In 2004, I was awarded a four-year NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) Fellowship to explore ways to combine my creative practice with my political activism. I am also currently being mentored through the Guiding Lights scheme by Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty) as I move towards my first feature.
[d]Producer Nectar
Abigail is a seasoned and award winning producer with over 450 network and regional film and television credits. A former drama Commissioning Editor, she ran HTV's Western Lights, a new talent drama production scheme for single drama. Credits include: Mother Me Daughter (starring Brenda Fricker), Steps (starring Ron Moody), Skin Deep (starring Navin Chowdry and Charles Dale, nominated for BAFTA Best Short) and Just Desserts, a comedy drama directed by Vadim Jean, nominated for an RTS Award 2001. Abigail is a member of South West Screen's Script Consultant Bank and a mentor for the UKFC's young people's filmmaking scheme First Light. She has produced eleven UKFC Digital Shorts. Abigail lectures in media studies at University of the West of England.
[d]Camera on documentary accompanying Nectar
I am a freelance artist and run VS1 Production in Bristol, where we organise Vision Sign at the Watershed. I first acted in the Deaf Festival at The Swan in 1997, then presented for BBC Education. Theatre and TV/film credits include Bent (Graeae), Diary of an Action Man (Graeae), Chronic Embarrassment (Bursteardurm), Talk (Disability Rights Commission), The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (BBC), Holby City (BBC) and DEF (Salad Films), winning Best Actor for DEF in the Deaf Oscars. Since 2000, I have run acting and film making workshops with Deaf Children, recently encouraging young Deaf people in the south-west to get involved in experimental film-making, theatre and performance.
[d]Sign language interpreter Nectar
Award-winning broadcaster Sherrie Eugene started her television career 23 years ago as a sign language interpreter for HTV news and weather, before embarking on speech presentation and becoming the station's anchor woman. She has worked on a range of programmes, many of which she devised, including Hand in Hand for C4, Green Grow the Rushes, a vegetarian cookery programme, Bristol's Roots, a look into the history of the Black Diaspora, and the documentary Windrush, which won a National Television Award. Now a freelance Presenter/Producer, she is working on a series West Country Culture for ITV West News, focusing on the West's diversity of culture and ethnicity.
[d]Assistant Producer Nectar, Producer Open Road
Sue's passion for photography and story telling took her to Bristol to study film. Her varied experience and interests - from textile design to engineering are reflected in her work, which encompasses experimental art films, science documentary and drama. Sue sees herself as a person who creates what she wants in whatever form suits the material - without being boxed in. She wants to make stunning work that challenges the audience so that they reconsider the world around them. As a filmmaker she has made foreign language films that have been broadcast shown in museums and galleries in The Netherlands and New York. Her experimental shorts have reached festival audiences.
[d]Director of Photography Nectar
For most of my career I have worked in the interface, originally between film and video, now between film and new digital media. I've shot on most film and video formats, for the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, (two of these won British Royal Television Society awards) and various international terrestrial and satellite broadcasters, and in drama, documentary, promos and commercials, live TV and films for theatrical distribution. Since 2000 I've become re-acquainted with High Definition (I first came across the older 1250 line system in 1990) and in 2004 (having already made various HD projects, some for film transfer) I shot the feature film Past, Present, Future Imperfect for Fluidity Films on 24p 1080 for cinema release. Also in 2004 I lit and technically directed a multi-camera HD shoot under candlelight for an HD DVD. My next feature Human Remains is due to shoot in 2006. More information on my website
[d]Audio description consultant Nectar
After several years' theatre experience and directing for BBC television, Raina trained in fiction film direction at The Northern Film School. Her graduation film Drive (1997) premiered at Leeds International Film Festival. The first fiction film to be audio described at production stage, it premiered at Birmingham International Film Festival (1997) and won Best Overall Innovation at Picture This Film Festival (Calgary). In 2002, Raina directed Gettin Off, followed by Blind Sensations (2001), 3x3 minute experimental films. Currently, Raina is collaborating with producer Paul Raphael and screenwriter Meera Syal on a romantic comedy project, with development finance from the UK Film Council. Raina does audio description production training and consultancy for audio describers and filmmakers.
[d]Coach in Nectar
Joe trained at Dartington College of Arts. His works in film and television and has appeared in numerous productions on ITV, Channel 4 and BBC. His theatre experience includes Bristol Old Vic, Travelling Light and Show of Strength. He has also appeared in several plays on Radio 3 and 4.
[d]Co-writer-producer-director 1831 Riot!; Co-writer Frida Kahlo's Corset
I call/am called/have called myself many things: poet, text-based artist, writer, scriptwriter, inventor, playwright, installation artist, micro-economic cultural entity, public poet. Do, do, now what do I do do? Oh, spray 100m long violent red negatively-stencilled 'found' poems onto industrial plastic and wind it round Somerset farms; float words on ponds and record the way the water sprites and frogs want them arranged; literally stick a 600m long 'city epic' onto the streets of Bristol, up and over several buildings and completely around two ferries (Bristol Legible City); fly poems on kites at Tintagel as English Heritage writer-in-residence. The LIVE VOICE is very important and I'm looking into ways of developing that right now. Stuff.
[d]Mother in Illumination
Kiren's acting credits extend to both film and theatre. she has worked with a variety of theatre and film companies. She begun her training at Aberystwyth University and went on to attend a number courses in dance and creative writing. Her theatre credits include: Forever (National Tour), Fools Paradise, Romeo & Laila, Multicultural, Phadera Brittanica. After a series of short films she has recently completed her first feature film Veiled Existence where she plays the leading role of Suman. Kiren is currently the youth theatre leader at Loughborough Theatre and leads a number of dance and theatre workshops across the country.
[d]Animator Illumination
After completing a BA hons degree in Fine Art Printmaking in 1984, Bryanís career started in a Cheltenham graphic design company before forming a fashion garment screen-print and design company. During business trips to Japan, it was suggested that his character drawings would be ideal for a Japanese comic strip, which appeared in Tokyo in 1995. this lead naturally to animation and the character Max Bear, co-developed with his wife Helena, was first broadcast on UK Channel 4 in 1998. Bryan began teaching animation and motion graphics in 2004, designing modules for industry and education while continuing to develop animated projects with his company Max Bear Productions Ltd.
[d]Gloria in Nectar
Poppy Roberts was born and raised in Cornwall and after backpacking her way around the world (and amazingly returning in one piece!) followed her dream to become an actor and began a three year training at The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Since leaving she has been involved in a variety of projects including a number one theatre tour ('My Boy Jack') and a new piece of writing- 'Kitty and Kate'- showcased at The New Vic Theatre, Newcastle Under- Lyme. As well as several short films and youth and community projects. She has recently returned to her beloved Cornwall where she continues to surround herself in the world of film and theatre.
[d]Nell in Illumination
Maia Tamrakar was cast as Dolly Girl in The King and I in 2004, aged 6. She loved being in the show and the producers were so impressed with her that she was asked to tour with the company. In 2006, she was cast as Tam in Miss Saigon and was overjoyed to be on stage again. Maia regularly attends the ITV West Drama Workshop, and it was here that she was spotted for Illumination, her first experience of film . Maia is very keen on theatre and now also on filming and would love to do more. She manages to fit it in between the many hours she spends in training as a gymnast, her other passion.
[d]Composer Nectar
An established film and television composer, Barnaby has produced scores for the BBC, Discovery Channel, and independent production companies such as Brook Lapping, Tigress Productions and Icon Films. He has worked on major strands including Storyville, Wildlife on One and The Natural World and in a wide range of genres (documentary, natural-history, commercials, short-film, theatre and radio) and styles (from sound-design and beat-driven, sample-based pieces, to acoustic scores and orchestral works). He has worked with the Royal Philharmonic and BBC Concert Orchestras, most recently on the BBC's Journey of Life and Europe: A Natural History. Recent projects include BAFTA-nominated My Foetus, and Calling the Shots, a finalist at the 2005 Toronto Hot Docs Film Festival.
This page last modified: 07 Sep 2007