The revelation of a top-secret British surveillance programme brings down the dominoes in a dark and analytical film about technology, rights and structural racism – and about a man with the courage to speak out
Read the 4* Guardian Review Here
Screening includes a Live Q & A with Kate Stonehill (Director) and Vera Simmonds (Editor) – hosted by local author and journalist Jen Offord.
About Kate Stonehill
Kate is an award-winning filmmaker whose work investigates corporate and state power in creative and innovative ways. She recently directed her debut feature documentary, Phantom Parrot (CPH:DOX, Sheffield Doc/Fest 2023), which unravels a secret U.K. government surveillance program and follows a human rights activist, as he is prosecuted under terror laws for refusing to hand over the passwords to his electronic devices. Her short films include The Family Statement (2022) for Field of Vision (Hamptons International Film Festival, DOC NYC), which brought to life the Sackler family’s group chat, using never-before-seen Whatsapp messages; the Grierson award nominated Mother (BFI London Film Festival 2020), and the RTS and Grierson award-winning Fake News Fairytale (BFI London Film Festival 2018). Her films have been supported by the Catapult Film Fund, Tribeca Film Institute, BFI Doc/Society, and Lush Film Fund, and she is a recipient of the Logan Nonfiction Fellowship. Alongside directing documentaries, Kate teaches filmmaking and works as a cinematographer. She has worked on films for Channel 4, Amazon Studios and VICE, and led workshops and courses at the National Film & Television School and UCL, where she helped design the B.A. in Media. Kate is based in London and is a dual U.K.-U.S. citizen.
About Vera Simmonds
Vera attended the Harwich School and studied foundation art at the Suffolk College, where, during a film making module, her tutor mentioned that she had a talent for editing. She then spent 10 years editing in different capacities, making her own films, assisting other editors, cutting extreme sports TV, before enrolling at the National Film and Television School (NFTS), where she edited the Oscar nominated, and BAFTA winning short, The Bigger Picture (Dir. Daisy Jacobs).
Vera now edits independent shorts and features, mostly documentaries, as well as being a visiting tutor at UCL and the NFTS.