I’ve noticed you’ve worked with director/filmmaker Emilie Norenberg quite a lot across different projects. How did that relationship start up and has there been anything you think you’ve learnt from working with someone across multiple projects?

Emilie and I met at university and both had similar interests musically, which translated quickly to the visuals that we both shared a curiosity in. There’s definitely a lot to be learnt from working with someone over time, on different productions. It takes a lot for me to feel like I really gel with somebody on a production. It’s rare to synchronise my wavelength with another person’s, but with a director as passionate and aware as Emilie it’s something that occurred quite naturally, at least after some initial rockiness with lining up working styles, which is normal. You definitely learn about how to compromise on certain aspects of what you’re making to benefit the product as a whole, rather than getting stuck on a subject and delaying the process. Mostly I’d say you reach a higher level of self awareness, as you work closely with another person for a long period, you realise how the way you act and react to aspects of shooting can make your colleagues feel. Because of this you begin to be considerate of how you could take measures to improve the way you communicate or acquit yourself to let things run as smoothly as possible.


From what I can see you’ve been travelling a whole heap recently. A bit around the USA and the UK, but also to Rocinha, Brazil to work on a film in collaboration with GOMA Collective. Could you expand a bit on that?

I shot and directed a couple of short documentaries over the last year in collaboration with Mikey Krzyzanowski and his social enterprise, Goma. Mikey had been out to Rocinha, the largest Favela in Brazil previously, and got to meet some of the kids living there and started to get involved with helping out a surf school there. Mikey, with help from fellow traveler Joseph Izzard, both with hearts of gold, got inspired by what they experienced on their adventure, and wanted to go back to help out the incredible community in the Favela. Pollution is a big problem in the area, and water contamination is something that has slowly been destroying the surf scene in Rocinha. We went out to shoot a documentary in the Favela, delving into the issues the community there face on adaily basis, in attempt to shine a light on the unbelievable affect an activity like surfing can have on redefining a younger generation seemingly lost in a bustling, handmade city. The documentary will be the surfers’ story, and how their future lies in the balance of some basic environmental issues being resolved.


Have you found any similarities or really distinct differences in the energy in the Brazilian communities compared to something like the skateboarding school you documented in the West Bank, Palestine?


With everywhere that I’ve been lucky enough to travel to and have some kind of contact with kids through an activity like skateboarding or surfing, you can always guarantee almost the exact same reaction. They’re excited, intrigued, hyperactive, mischievous and dangerous all at once. Other than obvious cultural differences between somewhere like the Middle East and South America, the response and energy expelled is really similar, this is especially recognisable when you can’t communicate through a common spoken language, but through action, facial expression and falling over, you manage to learn a lot about each other.

What do you think or hope the future could hold for communities such as the one in Rocinha and others like it?

Mostly just a spreading of awareness of what life is like in communities like Rocinha. I think it’s important to have some level of connection and relation to these places. I feel like that needs to be in place in order for the necessary help to be provided, if it is necessary. Otherwise somewhere like a Favela is looked over, and thought of as totally self-sufficient world, which in some cases may be true, but often a helping hand from the surrounding world would go along way, which in part is what the documentary I’m making is about.


Just on the idea of work and lives intertwining I’ve recently read an interview with an indigo worker where he speaks about his time at the indigo farm as just life and living as opposed to work, which I found very interesting and even somewhat familiar. Do you see that applying to your work at all?

Absolutely. I think that was a necessity for me, and I realised it growing up. Having your life be 75% work, 25% “life” seemed illogical to me. I definitely didn’t have some extraordinary plan to counteract that, but with the way it’s worked out for me, I certainly feel like everyday “working” is part of a larger tapestry, rather than being separate, wasted time.


Following from that, and to finish up, is there anything you really have your sights on in terms of your video or cinematographic work? Not necessarily in regards to clients or scale of the work, but something you want to achieve for yourself, outside of the explicitly physical or visual?

I’d love to be a part of making some work where you create enough interest for someone watching to not look at their phone for the three or so minute duration, or for them to be excited enough to actively seek out a monitor larger than an iPhone to view it. In the modern world, it’s the simple things.