The Filmmakers

CATALIN BRYLLA – director and producer

Catalin is a documentary filmmaker, focussing on stories about people from marginalised communities. Aiming to break social stereotypes, his films portray the lives of people from their own point of view, expressing their dreams, desires and motivations through simple everyday life events. However, his characters are always framed by larger concerns a wider society or (sub)culture shares. Catalin’s main aim is to create an empathic dialogue between his film characters and the audience, in which long-held preconceptions are dissolved to give way to a new form of understanding – an understanding that reduces “otherness” and highlights the ordinary everyday struggles and pleasures common to all human beings. Using this approach, his feature documentary Zanzibar Soccer Dreams (co-directed with Florence Ayisi) depicts the lives of Muslim women playing football and fighting to overcome patriarchal gender roles in Zanzibar. Catalin also works as a film lecturer and has published several books and articles on representation, disability, documentary film practice and spectatorship.

Website: http://catalinbrylla.com

Vimeo profile: https://vimeo.com/user1419679

MARIO HAMAD – main sound recordist and director’s assistant

Mario is a filmmaker currently completing a PhD in film practice at the London College of Communication. His research centres around the development of strategies designed to resist the narrative component of genocide in Syria through a cross-disciplinary arts practice.

ALAN GIBSON – sound mixer and editor

Alan is a London based film composer, multi-instrumentalist and sound designer with a degree from the Royal College of Music and an MA in Composing for Film and Television from Kingston University. He has provided music for TV, drama and documentary, and has extensive experience in a wide range of musical styles including classical, jazz, electronica, rock, folk and many ethnic music styles from around the globe. He is also a skilled sound editor and sound designer, and he often incorporates elements of improvisation to bring an extra dimension and life to his scores.

JAMES COLLIE – producer/distributor

James’s debut documentary, Beyond Biba, premiered at the Victoria and Albert Museum followed by a profitable UK cinema release to over fifty cinemas culminating in worldwide TV sales to broadcasters including The Sundance Channel, Sky, and SBS. As an innovative distributor, he has released twelve documentaries in UK cinemas and on home entertainment. He has worked in conjunction with the BFI Academy as a mentor and is currently the Distribution Coordinator for Random Acts at Screen South in Folkestone.