Whirlygig Cinema’s SPOTLIGHTS is a short film night that shines a light on the work and practice of outstanding new filmmakers.

At each event, three emerging filmmakers are given just half an hour each to showcase and talk about their films, providing a gripping insight into their background, ideas and filmmaking process. At the end of the night they all take part in a Q&A, giving audiences the chance to probe further.

Taking place on the first Wednesday of every month, SPOTLIGHTS strives to create a regular meeting place for filmmakers and film-lovers, showcasing hand-picked emerging film talent in a relaxed and intimate environment.

Spotlights #10: Wednesday 3rd July
Spotlights #11: Wednesday 7th August
Spotlights #12: Wednesday 4th September

Featured filmmakers

Wednesday 5th June 2013

• Jacob Perlmutter has made fashion films and music videos for Harper’s Bazaar, Hunger TV and Mercury Records, but his primary interest lays in drama. Drawn to observing and commenting on human nature, Jacob is also an award-winning reportage photographer represented by LILK Gallery. jacobperlmutter.com
• Steve Conway was born and raised in London a couple of turnings from Old Street. As a self-taught filmmaker he was also heavily influenced by a 4 year stint working in a photography studio and being around the stills world. His films are a combination of real life and fantasy but are always plot driven. steveconwayfilms.com
• Rob Curry completed his first feature, The Boat People, in 2007. His two latest shorts were funded by the UK Film Council and British Council. His 4Docs funded feature documentary, Way of the Morris, was released in cinemas in 2011 and broadcast on Sky Arts. His last feature, TEMPEST, was released in the UK last November. fifthcolumn.org.uk

Wednesday 1st May 2013

• Rebecca Coley started out in documentary training at the WFA (Workers Film Association) in Manchester and worked for the Travel Channel and News in the Channel Islands before moving into fiction. She is interested in the perplexities and contradictions of the human condition and her films are often based on true stories. beckycoley.com
• Alex Masterton is a filmmaker and musician born in England, but raised in Canada. His short films are personal, mainly inspired by the events and people from his life. Since graduating from Goldsmith’s College with his MA in Feature Film, he has worked as a writer/director/producer and film lecturer. He is currently developing a feature screenplay. paddysparadise.co.uk
• Michael Demetriou grew up in England and Cyprus and his films focus on themes of friendship and relationships. He has recently completed a 20-minute short titled The Pool Party and his previous film, Mooncake, has been screened at 4 venues, including the BFI Southbank and the Cine-East Festival. 28films.net

Tuesday 9th April

• Isla Ure is an actress with roles in British thriller Candlestick and the new Red Dwarf X. She recently wrote and directed her first short film Passengers which screened at Underwire Festival in 2013. Off the back of it she has been nominated for The BFI Future Film Award (for outstanding work by a female practitioner aged 15-25). islaure.co.uk
• Numra Siddiqui is a documentary filmmaker focusing on modern global issues. Growing up between Pakistan and London, Numra has developed a unique multicultural perspective. The Talking Walls of Lahore looks at street art in the town she grew up in. greaseyourpalmproductions.com
• Max Lincoln is a film director who graduated recently from Bournemouth Film School. With a love for the surreality of everyday life, Max hopes to take his viewers to known filmic realities with magical twists. The Chair has been rescored several times by Whirlygig Cinema’s Making Tracks and new short Thyme will be screened at the European Independent Film Festival. maxlincolnfilm.com

Tuesday 12th February 2013

• Prano Bailey Bond's work is known for its unique boldness as she fuses a dark horror-esque vocabulary with a refreshing newness that shows how beauty can reside in strange places. With a background in art and theatre, Welsh-born Prano’s creative stamp is both technically polished and visually distinctive. pranobaileybond.com
• Sam Baron made short films throughout his teens and ten years and 4 million YouTube hits later, he works as a runner serving tea to people who can’t remember his name. But he’s also still making short films and writing screenplays, and continues to have regular enough successes to keep his Mum quiet. illimms.com
• John Brown began his career with professional photography, although making films though was always his ultimate goal. John has developed a unique, measured and hands on approach to filmmaking. He has made music videos, shorts and virals and he is currently writing a feature. johnrobertbrown.co.uk

Tuesday 11th December 2012

• Mark Bowsher writes and directs comedy through his sketch show CAFLTtv. His film ‘Brenda’ won Best Short, Best Screenplay and Best Actress at 2 Days Laughter in 2011. Next year his short, ‘Only One Person Will Like This Film’ will screen at London Short Film Festival. caflt.wordpress.com
• David Higgs attended the Werner Herzog Rogue Film School in 2011 and now works for Archers Mark, a music video and commercials production company based in Shoreditch. He is currently developing his first feature film.
• Chamoun Issa was born in Beirut and grew up during the civil war. He studied directing at the National Film & Television School and his short films have won prestigious awards, screening at international festivals and on national TV. He directs virals and commercials and is developing his first feature film. chamounissa.com

Tuesday 9th October 2012

• Mikey Please graduated from London's Royal College of Art in 2010 and his thesis film The Eagleman Stag went on to premiere at Sundance, win a BAFTA and several other International Film Festival awards. He has directed for clients such as Nike, Virgin, Universal Records and in 2011 directed part of the Grammy nominated album film '9 Types of Light' for TV on the Radio. mikeyplease.co.uk
• Rebecca E Marshall is a filmmaker who likes playing games with her eyes. She uses an experimental style that informs her short films and documentaries in 35mm, 16mm and DV. Her work can make you aware of yourself as machinery: soft, fragile and yet very much alive. She graduated from her MA at The London Film School with a distinction in filmmaking and her graduation documentary is released in 2012 on DVD with Andrew Kötting’s feature Swandown. rebeccaemarshall.com
• Peter Bunzl is an award winning filmmaker whose work incorporates manipulated footage with digital and traditional animation. A graduate of the NFTS (Animation Direction M.A. 2002), Peter's animation work on ‘The Secret Show’ (BBC) and ‘Yoko Jakamoko Toto’ (ITV) contributed to four BAFTAs. His film 'Mind Games' was a Virgin Media Shorts Award Finalist (2008) and screened in 200 UK cinemas. ‘On The Upside’ and 'Mike 360º' were finalist in the Rushes Best Newcomer Award and the Raindance Extraordinary Film Competition respectively. peterbunzl.com

Tuesday 14th August 2012

• Joe Rosen is a filmmaker with over ten years experience making films and television programs. His work has been screened and highly commended at international festivals including Toronto, Austin, Sheffield and the LA Film Festival. Naturalistic structures that are both comic and poignant are a defining feature of his work and best seen in the short Blind Date. jbfc.tv
• Helen Nias makes short films because of an inquisitive desire to discover and understand more about the world and minds we inhabit. Topics of interest include spatial and temporal perceptions, dreams and reality, the experience of these and the memories these experiences create. Helen experiments with and utilises a range of techniques (including photogram animation, super 8, 16mm, and analogue and digital video) in an attempt to illustrate and evoke these small insights, sentiments and contradictions of life. helennias.co.uk
• Will Jewell has directed various shorts and directed a wealth of music promos. He has written for Sky, Channel 4 and the BBC and written and/or directed 5 web series, including the BAFTA-winning Bow Street Runner (Channel 4) and Horrible Histories: Terrible Treasures (BBC). He has also had several feature scripts optioned and has been commissioned to adapt Ben MacIntyre’s best-selling The Napoleon of Crime for the screen.fracturedfilms.com

Tuesday 12th June 2012

• Johnny Blank creates film, music video, commercial and experimental works. Johnny studied film in Melbourne before going on to establish two production companies, Blank Suburbs and coothwork. He then followed his digital agency, Agent Blank.johnnyblank.com
• Kim Jarrett studied Film Production at Bournemouth Film School and directed a number of productions most of which looked at music’s interaction with visual non-narrative imagery.kimberlyjarrett.com
Bailey Tom Bailey is an artist and filmmaker. After cutting his creative teeth in painting, and household DIY, he began to make experimental short films that increasingly use the apparatus of narrative cinema. Bailey’s films are often trying to express elusive feelings and ideas about ourselves, and the world, which are difficult to capture in words alone.tombaileyimages.com

Tuesday 10th April 2012

• Olivia Humphreys is a documentary filmmaker, radio producer and writer based in London. She recently graduated from Goldsmiths with an MA in Screen Documentary; her graduation film won a Royal Television Society award and was acquired by Sky Arts. Olivia is currently developing a documentary film about tattoo removal. oliviahumphreys.com.
• Nick Shaw is a Young Filmmaker of the Year nominee who writes and directs fiction and documentary shorts. Nick trained as an actor with LAMDA until the age of 18 but always harboured ambitions of becoming a filmmaker. His films are characterised by themes of masculinity in crisis, nationhood and absurdity – and plenty of dry humour.nickshaw.eu
• Emmaalouise Smith is a filmmaker and photographer. She has been living and working in the city of London for a number of years; being an image collector, a camera collector and an observer of those around her. She is influenced by traditional techniques, analogue equipment and all things cinematic. emmaalouise.wordpress.com