I am an academic filmmaker working especially in videographic criticism, meaning that I make digital videos about film and screen media. I am particularly interested in anti-utilitarian practices of ‘luxury’ scholarship, and my current research concerns the methods and poetics of the video essay as such.

I have published video essays in leading journals including [in]Transition: Journal of Videographic Film & Moving Studies, where I am now co-editor, and my video essays have won prizes and been selected for international film festivals.

My doctoral research (PhD Cambridge 2007) concerned terrorism in Italian cinema, and I have authored or co-edited several books and special journal issues on popular cinema and questions of cinema and history, including a monograph on the classic political film The Battle of Algiers.

I teach film and media history and short film production at BA and MA levels. My production teaching draws especially on essay film and video essay methods and traditions, and I teach filmmaking in the academy as a practice with a distinct creative-critical character. 

I supervise MA theses on a range of topics, and have a special interest in working with students who wish to make a creative product as part of their research. I have supervised PHD students working on topics like film festivals, collaborative songwriting, and popular celebrity, and am espcially interested in working with practice researchers.