Board & Leadership Team
Find out about the DFC’s Board of Trustees, Leadership Team and Founder Members. The Board was elected by DFC members in May 2024, and is the first ever elected board of representatives in UK documentary film history. DFC elections happen annually and Trustees can serve a maximum term of three years.
For more information about the DFC’s governance, including its election process and the roles and responsibilities of its Board and Leadership Team, please read our FAQs and explore our Resources section, including the Co-operative Corporate Governance Code (Co-ops UK, 2019).
Olu is a neurodivergent filmmaker with extensive experience in film, TV, theatre, and fashion. Her journey into the creative industry was markedly unconventional, overcoming significant barriers as a care leaver who spent years houseless. Olu takes pride in her unorthodox entry, believing it reflects the experiences of many from similar backgrounds. She also hopes her journey serves as a point of connection to others facing similar challenges and wanting to enter the industry.
Olu has directed films, shoots, and shows for clients such as Christian Blanken, Ada Zanditon for London Fashion Week, ID Magazine, Vogue Online, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Fashion TV, Pants to Poverty, and the International Organisation for Migration. Her theatre work includes writing and directing projects featured at the Young Vic, Old Vic Labs, Royal Shakespeare Company Dell, Bunker Theatre, Bernie Grants Arts Centre, Tristan Bates Theatre, and Criterion Theatre.
Despite her previous experience, Olu sees herself as an emerging filmmaker. In 2023, Olu founded Ikenga Creative Lab to consolidate her diverse work experiences, and independently create and develop her projects. Olu is committed to producing impactful work, amplifying diverse voices, celebrating cultural heritage and exploring innovative approaches to storytelling. Her current work revolves around a series of short documentaries exploring the experiences of different communities, emphasizing the dual role of these communities as both audiences and storytellers.
She is also an Associate Artist at B3 Media.
Emily joined the Documentary Film Council in February 2023 to project manage the launch of the organisation. Before joining the DFC, she produced the annual documentary funding awards at The Whickers, a UK-based international fund for emerging directors. Prior to that Emily was Film Release Manager at Journeyman Pictures, a global documentary distributor and sales agent and Production Manager at DocHouse, where she was part of the small team that opened the UK’s first documentary dedicated cinema, Bertha DocHouse.
Emily works regularly as a consultant and pre-selector for festivals and funds, including Sheffield DocFest, Doc Society, IDA, Open City Documentary Festival and The Grierson Trust. She is currently producing her first feature documentary.
With years of experience in narrative and documentary production in France, Flore joined the core team at Scottish Documentary Institute (SDI) in 2010 to manage the Institute’s various training initiatives and industry events, including the Edinburgh Pitch and the short documentary training programme Bridging the Gap. Flore was appointed Managing Director of SDI in September 2022.
Since moving to Scotland, she has also produced short and mid-length docs, as well as the feature documentary Freedom Fields, directed by Naziha Arebi, which premiered at TIFF in 2018. Flore is on the board of the international lab for creative documentary production EURODOC, and a regular consultant for documentary organisations internationally.
Fiona joined our Film team in 2024 and brings over 15 years of experience in the independent film sector to her work as Film Relationship Manager. Her role is focused on fostering connections and creative collaborations between the UK film and international cultural communities.
Prior to the British Council, Fiona worked for six years with global non-profit Doc Society, leading the BFI Doc Society Fund support programme for UK documentary filmmaking talent and working across flagship international programmes like Good Pitch Europe and Climate Story Lab.
Previously Fiona held roles for a broad roster of leading UK cultural organisations including BFI London and Flare LGBTIQ+ Film Festivals, Brighton-based arts charity Lighthouse, Birds’ Eye View, distributor Soda Pictures and Jersey-based film and arts festival, Branchage. She has also facilitated a number of artist commissions and brings specialist documentary sector knowledge and connections.
Alongside her role with the British Council, Fiona works independently advising artists and filmmakers and on talent and audience development projects.
Roisín Geraghty is an independent film producer and industry programmer based in County Mayo, in the North West of Ireland. She currently works as the Head of Industry and Marketplace for Docs Ireland in Belfast, serves as Industry Manager and Programmer for Cork International Film Festival, as well as spearheading the IGNITE Cross-Border Documentary Talent Development Programme. She has worked with various film organisations in Ireland, the UK and the US, including Edinburgh International Film Festival, Belfast Film Festival, GAZE LGBT Film Festival, the Galway Film Fleadh, the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) and Tribeca Film Festival. Roisín is also a Producer in her own right and an alumni of the Rotterdam Producers Lab (2020), and the Dok Jih:lava Emerging Producers Programme. In May 2023, Roisín was nominated chair of the DFC’s Interim Board.
Jessi Gutch is a BIFA nominated writer, award winning director and BAFTA Elevate / BFI Insight producer. Living with incurable ovarian cancer, she proudly identifies as a disabled filmmaker. She is passionate about the intersection between fact and fiction and her slate of short films have screened at BAFTA qualifying festivals. Until The Tide Creeps In was a double award winner at Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2022 – taking home both Best Documentary and Best of Festival. Blind As A Beat also won the Best Experimental Film award at the Women Over 50 Film Festival 2022. Her debut documentary feature, Blue Has No Borders, is due for release in early 2025 – produced by Tigerlily and I Am Charlie.
Emma has worked in documentaries for 25 years as a film editor, director, executive producer and for the last five years has been Creative Director at internationally renowned independent production company, Brook Lapping. Leading a huge range of productions from history, arts and drama docs to observational documentaries, Emma’s work has been regularly nominated for and won awards from BAFTA, Grierson and the RTS. Having launched and worked with a wide range of talent both on and off screen, Emma is recognised as a long-term and personally driven advocate of diversity in all its many forms.
Steve Presence is an Associate Professor of Film Studies at UWE Bristol. Outside of his teaching, Steve’s research focuses on the film and television industries and activist film culture, with a particular focus on documentary. He has published widely in these fields in various books, reports and peer-reviewed journals and has led several large UKRI-funded research grants as Principal Investigator. From 2018-2021, as part of the UK Feature Docs project, he facilitated the policy-focused consultations from which the DFC emerged and co-authored the two reports on its findings, Keeping it Real (2020) and Making it Real (2021). Other recent publications include Go West 2! Bristol’s Film and Television Industries (2022) and Contemporary Radical Film Culture: Networks, Organisations and Activists (2020).
Founder of Doc Hearts, Andy Mundy-Castle is known for producing high end content that authentically represents diverse communities with immediacy, sophistication and scale. With over 15 years of experience in the industry. Ex BBC staff Mundy-Castle is the owner and creator of the formats Go Green With The Grimwades, Multi award nominated Reu & Harpers Wonderworld, The Black Lesbian Handbook, Britains Abandoned Playgrounds and the standout MIPCOM hit show What Did I Do Last Night?
From the award winning Lenny Henry The Commonwealth Kid (BBC1), the critically acclaimed White Nanny Black Child (BFI / Channel 5), Jimmy Akingbola Handle With Care (Peacock / ITV), Charlene White Empires Child (ITV), to the critically acclaimed The Fade (Netflix), and the RTS / BAFTA nominated Battyman (C4), Mundy-Castle’s work has been regarded highly as work that documents diverse experience with depth and style.
Sandra Whipham joined Doc Society as a Director in January 2012 and works across all areas of the organisation’s work, with a particular focus on the UK. She oversees the BFI Doc Society Fund, which comprises a features fund, the Made of Truth shorts fund for new and emerging filmmakers, and a talent support programme all enabled by the National Lottery. Previously, Sandra established London Fields Pictures Ltd where she produced and executive produced a range of documentary film and television including multi award-winning Enemies of the People (dir. Thet Sambath/Rob Lemkin). From 2007 – 9 Sandra was Editor, More 4, and commissioned the True Stories international documentary strand.
Joint Acting CEO | Producer
Emily joined the Documentary Film Council in February 2023 to project manage the launch of the organisation. Alongside Steve Presence, she is currently holding the space of DFC CEO until the organisation has the resources to hire paid staff.
Before joining the DFC, she produced the annual documentary funding awards at The Whickers, a UK-based international fund for emerging directors. Prior to that Emily was Film Release Manager at Journeyman Pictures, a global documentary distributor and sales agent and Production Manager at DocHouse, where she was part of the small team that opened the UK’s first documentary dedicated cinema, Bertha DocHouse.
Emily works regularly as a consultant and pre-selector for festivals and funds, including Sheffield DocFest, Doc Society, IDA, Open City Documentary Festival and The Grierson Trust. She is currently producing her first feature documentary.
Dr Steve Presence
Joint Acting CEO | Associate Professor of Film Studies, UWE Bristol
Steve Presence is an Associate Professor of Film Studies at UWE Bristol. He led the UK Feature Docs research project from which the DFC developed, and alongside Emily Copley, is currently holding the space of DFC CEO until the organisation has the resources to hire paid staff.
Outside of his teaching, Steve’s research focuses on the film and television industries and activist film culture, with a particular focus on documentary. He has published widely in these fields in various books, reports and peer-reviewed journals and has led several large UKRI-funded research grants as Principal Investigator. From 2018-2021, as part of the UK Feature Docs project, he facilitated the policy-focused consultations from which the DFC emerged and co-authored the two reports on its findings, Keeping it Real (2020) and Making it Real (2021). Other recent publications include Go West 2! Bristol’s Film and Television Industries (2022) and Contemporary Radical Film Culture: Networks, Organisations and Activists (2020).
Dr Christo Wallers
Consultant
Christo has been working on the development of the DFC since April 2022, initially as a Research Associate with UWE until January 2023, and as a freelance consultant since then. He has been focusing on organisational design and making sure the co-operative principles are reflected in our governance structure.
Christo is also an experimental cinema-maker, post-doctoral film scholar and filmmaker. He is a co-founder of Star and Shadow Cinema, a self-organized, co-operative cinema in Newcastle upon Tyne. He organises an annual film retreat called Losing the Plot in rural Northumberland. He was funded by an SWW DTP award to research his PhD From caves to commons: DIY Cinema in the UK, completed in 2021. In April 2023 he was awarded an AHRC Research Fellowship at Aberystwyth University. Christo’s research documents and explores participatory, activist and co-operative organisational structures within and on the margins of the screen industries. His integrated cinema practice includes making, programming and setting up the social conditions for watching films together.
Kate Chapman
Communications & Fundraising Officer
Kate joined the Documentary Film Council in February 2024 to assist with communications and fundraising strategy. Alongside her work at the DFC she is a Creative Analyst at Sons of Rigor Films, an independent film financing company based in the UK and the US. In this small team she evaluates narrative and documentary project submissions, contributes editorial feedback to invested projects and works across company strategy and research. Before joining Sons of Rigor, Kate worked in acquisitions for several years at Journeyman Pictures, a global distributor and sales agent.
She studied Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge for her BA and holds an MA in Modern and Contemporary Literature from Goldsmiths College, London. She has lived and worked in Paris and York and is now based in London.
Rebecca is a qualified psychotherapist, clinical supervisor and freelance documentary producer. She founded Film In Mind, a therapy service for filmmakers, in 2018 to address mental health in the film industry. She combines her therapeutic skills with over a decade of documentary production experience to offer consultancies, workshops and therapeutic support to filmmakers working in difficult situations and with vulnerable people. She is also a co-founder of DocuMentality, an international initiative designed to elevate the conversation around mental health in the documentary community. She has been a guest speaker and mentor on panels and at workshops with organisations such as IDFA, Berlinale, International Documentary Association, Video Consortium, WIFTV and Sheffield DocFest.
LINDSEY DRYDEN is an Emmy® award-winning film producer, director and writer based in Austin TX and the UK. She produced Sundance Special Jury Award-winning Unrest (2017, PBS/Netflix), produced Emmy®-winning Trans in America (2018, ACLU/CondeNast them) and executive produced Ahead of the Curve (2020, Starz). She directed Lost and Sound (2012, SXSW), Jackie Kay: One Person, Two Names (2017, Tate Queer British Art), and Close Your Eyes and Look at Me (2009, True/False). She is a co-founder of FWD-Doc: Filmmakers with Disabilities, a proud member of QueerDoc, a 2022 Sundance Institute Documentary Producers Lab Fellow, a BFI Vision Awardee 2020, and a full voting member of the film and TV chapter of BAFTA. She founded Little By Little Films, which specialises in brilliant storytelling by LGBTQ+, women’s and D/deaf and disabled voices.
Christopher Hird is the founder of Dartmouth Films, producers and distributors of independent documentaries. He has previously been the chair of Sheffield DocFest, a trustee of the Grierson Trust and One World Media and the founding chair of Doc Society.
Steve Presence is an Associate Professor of Film Studies at UWE Bristol. Outside of his teaching, Steve’s research focuses on the film and television industries and activist film culture, with a particular focus on documentary. He has published widely in these fields in various books, reports and peer-reviewed journals and has led several large UKRI-funded research grants as Principal Investigator. From 2018-2021, as part of the UK Feature Docs project, he facilitated the policy-focused consultations from which the DFC emerged and co-authored the two reports on its findings, Keeping it Real (2020) and Making it Real (2021). Other recent publications include Go West 2! Bristol’s Film and Television Industries (2022) and Contemporary Radical Film Culture: Networks, Organisations and Activists (2020).
