Filmmaker Biogs
WRITER/DIRECTOR – SIMON PUMMELL
IDENTICALS is Simon Pummell’s first narrative feature film. He is best known for directing the BAFTA-winning documentary feature film Bodysong (2003) that Time magazine described as “an utterly mesmerizing and humbling portrait of humanity.” It was the first film to be scored by Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead and in 2010 was re-released as a British Film Institute Collectors Edition DVD & book.
Simon’s recent feature documentary Shock Head Soul premiered in the Orizzonti Competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2011. The partner suite of animation films The Sputnik Effect showed as installations in galleries in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Melbourne and M HKA Museum Ghent. The project forms a portrait of Daniel Paul Schreber the C19th outsider artist who elaborated a steam-punk vision of a machine universe penetrated by networks of ‘nerve-rays’, with himself at the very center as God’s chosen bride.
Earlier in his career he made numerous award-winning animated films for UK television exploring various interpenetrations of technology and bodies. More recently an ongoing series of animation films Atlas For Animate Bodies showed as an installation at the Victoria & Albert Museum in Sept 2013.
In 2007/9 he was a Harvard University Film Study Center Fellow. Since 2010 he is Research Professor and Director of the Media Design Program at the Piet Zwart Institute for Graduate Research and Study.
He is currently developing two new feature-film screenplays with Hot Property Films: an adaptation of William Gibson’s Dogfight and Immortality Death-Trip.
PRODUCER – JANINE MARMOT, HOT PROPERTY FILMS
Hot Property was set up in 1995 by the critically acclaimed award-winning producer Janine Marmot. Two films produced by Janine have won a BAFTA, Bodysong, (Simon Pummell), and most recently Kelly + Victor, (Kieran Evans).
The company specialises in films and transmedia projects where the narrative content is strengthened by a strong visual realisation. She is currently in post production on feature documentary The Museum of Innocence, filmed in Istanbul and directed by Grant Gee, with original narration written by nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk.
Janine is also developing a slate of feature films through Hot Property Films with partners including FilmFour, BFI, Media and Film Agency Wales.
Dogfight by Simon Pummell, an adaptation from a William Gibson story.
The Price On Your Head by Ned Beauman.
Simon Pummell’s contemporary ghost story Slow Motion Explosion.
An adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman with Francine Zuckerman.
Films produced by Janine have won numerous awards and screened at festivals around the world including Toronto, Berlin, Venice, Rotterdam and Locarno. Her feature credits include the award-winning: Shock Head Soul by Simon Pummell, Looking for Light and No Greater Love by Michael Whyte, Bodysong by Simon Pummell, I Could Read the Sky by Nichola Bruce and Institute Benjamenta by The Brothers Quay
CO PRODUCER - JOHN KEVILLE, SAVAGE PRODUCTIONS
Irish Producer John Keville graduated from the Ballyfermot College of Further Education in 2007 and is now co owner of Dublin based production outfit Savage Production, with producer Conor Barry and director Brendan Muldowney.
He has just completed post production on the Irish Film Board supported feature film You’re Ugly Too, written and directed by Mark Noonan, starring Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones & The Wire) and George Pistereanu (If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle & Loverboy).
He is co producing the documentary Democrazy, written and directed by Andreas Dalsgaard. The documentary is to be produced by Signe Byrge of Final Cut for Real in Denmark.
He has worked very closely with the writer/director – Lee Cronin producing 3 short films for him including his most recent Ghost Train, which screened in this year’s Clermont Ferrand and Tampere film festivals.
His next production as lead producer is the project Pilgrimage, written by Jamie Hannigan and directed by Brendan Muldowney is at financing stage and is supported by the Irish Film Board & Wallimages.
He is a member of EAVE and the Screen Training Ireland’s “Leading Edge” Programme. He was Ireland’s EFP Producer on the Move in Cannes 2014 and is a member of the EFA.
CO PRODUCER - CONOR BARRY, SAVAGE PRODUCTIONS
Irish Producer Conor Barry graduated from the IADT (the Irish National Film School) in 2000. He has worked very closely with the writer/director – Brendan Muldowney since then, producing his IFTA (Irish Film and Television Awards) award-winning debut feature film Savage, and his second feature - the award-winning Love Eternal. It has screened at over eighty film festivals, and was recently awarded Best Irish Feature at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. It will be released in the UK/Ireland, Australia, Benelux, Germany and the US over the coming months. He is also producing Pilgrimage, Brendan Muldowney’s next project.
As a co producer, he is in post production on Andreas, which the Oscar-nominated documentarian Joshua Oppenheimer is Executive Producing. He is a Producer on Mark Noonan’s You’re Ugly Too with Aiden Gillan, and is presently producing Rebecca Daly's Mammal with the Oscar nominated actress Rachel Griffiths.
He has also produced two IFTA nominated documentaries In Sunshine Or In Shadow and Gualainn Le Gualainn, written and directed by Andrew Gallimore.
He attended the EAVE 2010, ACE21, EFP Producer on the Move 2013 and Inside Pictures 2014 programmes.
CO PRODUCER – REINIER SELEN, RINKEL FILM
Producer Reinier Selen was born in Venlo in 1972. He graduated as a documentary director from Kunstacademie St. Joost (St. Joost’s Art Academy) in Breda in 1996. He founded Rinkel Film in 1997. In the following years Selen produced award-winning feature films, including Backslide, Nothing Personal and Cool Kids Don’t Cry.
In 2008, Selen also represented The Netherlands as ‘Producer On The Move’ at the Cannes International Film Festival. In 2014 he made the selection for Inside Pictures, a prestigious and professional training program, set up by Qwerty Films (UK) and developed under the banner of the National Film & Television School London. Selen is a member of the European Film Academy.
Selen produced three new feature films in 2014: Love Eternal, Secrets of War and Accused. At the Netherlands Film Festival Secrets of War was awarded the Special Jury Prize and has since been shown at many leading foreign festivals such as the Toronto International Film Festival and the Chicago Children's Film Festival. Accused made it to the shortlist of the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film of 2014.
In 2015, the production of two new features are scheduled: the creative biopic A Real Vermeer and the astonishing Playboy Priest, also based on a true story.
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY - REINIER VAN BRUMMELEN
Reinier is a cinematographer and VFX artist specialising in cinematic lighting for filmmakers and artists for the screen and for museum installations.
In 1987, because of his lighting work for VPRO-TV Reinier was asked to work as a gaffer for DOP Sacha Vierny on Peter Greenaway's Drowning by Numbers. Since then he has made lighting and set designs for films and exhibitions by Peter Greenaway in Rome, Venice, London, Vienna, Barcelona, Paris, etc. For his cinematography on Greenaway’s Nightwatching in 2007 he was nominated for the Golden Calf award for Best Cinematography at The Netherlands Film Festival. In 2008 Reinier designed with Greenaway a unique and controversial light projection on Leonardo Da-Vinci’s The Last Supper. His most recent collaboration with Greenaway, Eisenstein in Guanajuato, premiered in Feb 2015 in The Berlin Film Festival Main Competition.
He has previously worked together with Simon Pummell on the documentary feature-film Shock Head Soul. Collaborations as a cinematographer with other directors include the Netherlands’ 2011 entry for best animation Oscar - The Origin of Creatures [Floris Kaayk] - and the popular Dutch children’s film - Crusade in Jeans/Kruistocht in Spijkerbroek [Ben Sombogaart]. He has also worked as a light designer for the Italian fashion house 'Trussardi' as well as various other international exhibitions.
In 2015 he’ll be co-directing with Arno Hagers, Erik Lieshout and Michel Houellebecq, the movie ‘Rester Vivant,’ starring Iggy Pop, it is based on Houellebecq’s essay of the same name.
VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR – BAREND ONNEWEER
Barend is an independent colourist and visual effects artist/supervisor and occasional motiondesigner. First and foremost he is a storyteller: through his work in colourgrading and visual effects he helps directors bring story to the screen.
He is a frequent collaborator with Simon Pummell, both teaching at the William De Koonig Art Academy in The Netherlands. Their previous work includes the feature documentary Shock Head Soul and the accompanying gallery installation of 3D diptych, The Sputnik Effect.
COMPOSER – ROGER GOULA
Roger Goula has a background in classical and jazz guitar but it was his talent for composition that got him noticed and won him scholarships from the PRS Foundation for New Music and The Alan Hawkshaw Foundation during his time at the NFTS, where he studied for an MA in composition for film.
Having built up an impressive portfolio working as a composer for fringe theatre, short films, and contemporary dance projects, more recently Roger has scored a number of distinctive short films and contributed to notable documentaries such as Best Of Men and Britain In A Day and, last year, the critically acclaimed film Shock Head Soul, for director Simon Pummell. In a Variety review of the film, Roger’s music was described as ‘strikingly original‘.
In 2014, Roger scored the award-winning documentary film Next Goal Wins. Now released on DVD, the film opened to universal critical acclaim and is rated as 100% fresh on rottentomatoes.com. Since then, Roger has completed the scores for Brand New-U, and Tiger House, a thriller for director Tom Daley.
Roger is writing his first album of original music for new imprint, Composer Recordings.
PRODUCTION DESIGNER – GREG SHAW
Inspired and challenged by the world of production design, Greg Shaw’s work over the last 15 years has seen him design feature films, TV dramas and comedy projects. He has followed his passion of film and design, initially studying architecture in London then production design at the National Film and Television School.
Greg’s work reflects his background in architecture, while constantly exploring the role of new technology and its application into projects as a tool for both concept visualisation and post production techniques. Such knowledge allows him the ability to expand the tools available to the designer while maintaining the love of story telling.
His recent work includes the new series Cut, written by Olivier-nominated playwright DC Moore and the feature films Don’t Hang Up from director Damien Macé and Pressure, directed by Ron Scalpello.
CASTING DIRECTOR - AMANDA TABAK
Amanda began casting whilst helping out at a production company after a successful career as a dancer. Initially she worked only on street casting with non-actors, before moving into film casting through collaborations with emerging directors at the Royal College of Art. Amanda set up her company Candid Casting in 1993, which is now one of the UK’s leading full service casting companies covering all areas of screen.
Amanda’s previous film work includes The Low Down (featuring Aiden Gillen, Kate Ashfield and Tobias Menzies), acclaimed urban gang films Kidulthood (featuring Aml Ameen, Noel Clarke, Jaimie Winstone and Nicholas Hoult) and Honeytrap (featuring Jessica Sula, Lucien Laviscount and newcomer Ntonga Mwanza), the UK casting on Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion, Tom Shankland’s horror film The Children and We Are The Freaks (starring Jamie Blackley). For her award-winning and seminal short films, Amanda has attracted talent such as Martin Freeman, Richard Madden, Joss Ackland, Alexandra Roach and Joe Cole, with her casting contributing its part to the Oscar success of Andrea Arnold’s film Wasp.
Amanda also casts international co-productions such as Hotel Very Welcome directed by Sonja Heiss and featuring Chris O’Dowd, The Flying Machine directed by Martin Clapp and featuring Heather Graham, Toni Erdmann directed by Maren Ade and Spike Lee’s introduction of director Lucy Malloy with Una Noche.
Amanda has substantial experience casting for television, such as BAFTA and EMMY-winning Dustbin Baby featuring Dakota Blue Richards and Juliet Stevenson, Some Dogs Bite featuring Thomas Brody-Sangster, 5 seasons of the award-winning M.I. High, Spirit Warriors with Benedict Wong, BAFTA-winning That Summer Day, season 3 of award-winning dance show The Next Step and Nick Blood in Trollied for Sky1.
Amanda is currently working on the casting for feature film Undone, directed by Stefan Stuckert, with two more titles in development.