About
I was born bang in the middle of the 20th century on the 1st of January 1950. I grew up in the British community in Uruguay and Argentina and moved to Europe when I was a rebellious teenager. I've always been an outsider.
I became a mother when I was a teenager and spent years on the breadline bringing up my son, painting, being a political activist, working in factories and kitchens, being a labourer and a youth worker and having love affairs and adventures. Those years inform how I make films and my other work now. I have never regretted living any of my lives because it all pours into who I am and how I can be in the world.
I am primarily but not exclusively a filmmaker, slithering around a liminal space in between fiction and documentary. I make feature films and television documentaries and television fiction not all written by me. I have directed operas, on film and on stage at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the English National Opera in London. I started out as a painter and recently I've also moved into making installations in art galleries using very different languages. As I write this at the end of 2017 I am directing Ackley Bridge, a prime time drama series for Channel 4, working with a group of younger people on DatsTv, a Youtube channel challenging knife and gun violence on the streets and preparing for an art show at Modern Art Oxford next year. I tell stories about what I discover in the world in different ways. I define myself as an artist and I don't much care how other people do it.
I only do things I feel passionate about. I have survived by doing things my own way, sometimes I’m hot and sometimes I’m not and I have learnt to not to take either over flattering praise or harsh criticism too seriously. I just do my work and stay curious and interested in the world around me. I stay lively. Live in the present. Love my life.
This website makes my work available to anybody who is interested. Where work is available to buy I am posting links to prevent the site being taken down and the rest you can watch on Vimeo for free. I will upload other films for free when I get time to transfer and upload them over the next year.
I thought it might be helpful to write about my process while making this work. These are not instructions but just the way I went about things.
I frequently get contacted by people who are completely outside the loop and want to get into the film and television industry and if that’s who you are I have written a piece for you: So you Want to Make a Film.
Enjoy.