Experimental Productions

Production Lead: Mandy Rose

Mandy Rose is Professor of Documentary & Digital Cultures at UWE Bristol. Her research investigates the forms, aesthetics, ethics and politics of participatory, interactive and immersive documentary. Mandy is Co-Investigator on the UKRI Strength in Places MyWorld programme. From 2017-2020 she was Co-Investigator on the EPSRC Virtual Realities: Immersive Documentary Encounters project. She is Co-Convenor of i-Docs. Mandy is on the Executive Board of Bristol’s Pervasive Media Studio. She is a Member-Director of The Bristol Cable.

Mandy spent the first twenty years of her working life in TV and film production – as a sound recordist, producer, director in documentary and factual television. During twenty years at the BBC she oversaw award-winning interactive and participatory media initiatives including BBC 2’s ground-breaking Video Nation project (Prix Iris, CRE Race in the Media Award) and the Capture Wales/Cipolwg ar Gymru (BAFTA Cymru) digital storytelling project.

Mandy is co-editor of i-docs: the evolving practices of interactive documentary – Wallflower Press 2017. Her recent writing appears in Studies in Documentary Film, World Records and Convergence.

Production Lead: Kate Pullinger

At Bath Spa University, Kate is the Director of the university-wide strategy research centre, the Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries (CCCI). She is also Co-Director on the South West Creative Technology Network, a three year, £6.5m project (2018-2021) funded by Research England; she is also co-investigator on the Bristol + Bath Creative Research and Development Partnership, a four and a half year, £9m AHRC-funded creative industries cluster project (2018-2023). Within the cluster, Kate leads on the current pathfinder, Amplified Publishing, a year-long R+D about the future of publishing across games, books, online, VR/AR, and audio.

Kate is also a novelist, the academic lead on Bath Spa’s first step into the enterprise and innovation space, The Studio at Palace Yard Mews and was previously the co-investigator on the two-year AHRC- funded research project, Ambient Literature, a collaboration with UWE, the University of Birmingham, and the Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol (2016-18).

Production Lead: Daniel Efergan

Daniel Efergan is the Executive Creative Director of Interactive at Aardman Animations. What this actually means is he gets to spend lots of time doing fun things like making games, forming playful communities, and messing around in the murky bits between storytelling and interactivity.

He has been instrumental in the conception and delivery of BAFTA winning interactive projects such as the Tate Movie Project and World of Invention, and lead or supported many others, including the (twice) BAFTA nominated debut console game, 11-11 Memories Retold.

Previously he kept himself entertained as MD of Subsub Skills and Production, technical lead on Light Up Bristol, a part time lecturer and founding and running the Submerge New Media Festival, which gave him a warm and fuzzy feeling by bringing together creative people and seeing what happened.

Production Lead: Nancy Medina

Nancy is the Artistic Director at Bristol Old Vic and Joint Artistic Director of the Bristol School of Acting,  her recent credits include Moreno (Theatre503), Trouble in Mind (National Theatre), Two Trains Running (Royal & Derngate/ETT), Strange Fruit (Bush Theatre), (Kiln Theatre/Fuel/Birmingham Rep), and Yellowman (Young Vic). Her production of the world première of The Darkest Part of the Night by Zodwa Nyoni opened at Kiln Theatre on 14 July 2023.

Nancy is the recipient of the following awards:

2020/2021 Peter Hall Bursary (National Theatre),
2018 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award (Royal & Derngate/English Touring Theatre),
2017 Genesis Future Director Award (Young Vic),
2014 Emerging Director’s Prize (Tobacco Factory Theatres).

Production Lead: Rob Hifle

Rob started his career in television at the BBC. In the mid nineties he formed the design and direction agency, Burrell Durrant Hifle (BDH) which would later re-brand and transition into the fully fledged VFX company, Lux Aeterna.

Now twenty years on Rob has amassed a huge catalogue of direction work that extends across TV broadcast, music visuals, film, commercials and events. He has written & directed several self-initiated shorts as well as commissioned films for Sundance Channel and Channel 4 in the UK to name a few. Rob has been instrumental across the media industry picking up numerous awards including BAFTA, D&AD, EMMY, PROMAX and Royal Television Society.