OUR TEAM
CORE CREW
DIRECTOR - THOMAS LAURANCE
Thomas Laurance is an award-winning director of documentary and fiction. After studying direction at the Northern Film School in Leeds and screenwriting at FAMU in Prague, his graduation short, THE BOTTLE, won Best Film at the 2013 Horizon Film Festival. He followed up with the deeply personal, vérité documentary, WILLIAM LAURANCE & SONS MARINE ENGINEERS, which featured at Sheffield Doc Fest 2015. In addition to writing and directing, Thomas has worked as a set and scenery carpenter and a prop maker on films such as Tim Burton's DUMBO. This skillset proved very useful in the informal refugee camp known as the Calais 'Jungle', where Thomas volunteered for a year in 2016. This became the basis of ON OUR DOORSTEP.
PRODUCER - VERITY WISLOCKI
Verity has worked on films by Tim Burton, Alfonso Cuarón, Anthony Minghella and Yorgos Lanthimos. She produced the award-winning feature documentary ANOTHER NEWS STORY, which has appeared in over 30 film festivals worldwide, was released theatrically and is now available on iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play. Verity was longlisted as Breakthrough Producer at the 2018 BIFAs.
PRODUCER - CASSANDRA SIGSGAARD
With a passion for original stories by visionary filmmakers, Cassandra’s theatrical credits include the award-winning feature debut NINA FOREVER, directed by the Blaine brothers, hailed as “strikingly original” by Screen International which premiered at SXSW; and the feature documentary, INDIA IN A DAY, directed by Richie Mehta and executive produced by Ridley Scott. The film premiered at Sheffield Doc Fest and the Toronto International Film Festival, and was released theatrically in India and worldwide by Youtube. Her latest feature, the film noir THE LESSON, directed by Alice Troughton and starring Richard E. Grant, Julie Delpy and Daryl McCormack will have its world premiere at the Tribeca International Film Festival in New York in June, before its theatrical release.
PRODUCER - JODIE TAYLOR
Jodie is an award-winning documentary producer working across film and audio. Credits include the podcast A NEW NORMAL: AUDIO DIARIES FROM SYRIANS IN EUROPE and audio documentary THE CLIFFS, about a romantic relationship formed in the Calais 'Jungle' between a volunteer and a Syrian refugee. Starting her career in documentary film exhibition, she produced itinerant screenings for underserved communities and those under threat of displacement in the UK and the West Bank. As a film and audio producer Jodie’s interest is in character-led storytelling; personal micro stories as a way into the broader social topics of our time. Her documentaries have appeared on the BBC, ABC, CBC, WNYC, Topic.com and KCRW.
COMPOSER - DOMINIC DE GRANDE
Dominic de Grande is an award winning composer of contemporary classical & electronic music. He was educated at Birmingham Conservatoire and Cambridge University where he was awarded the Sir Arthur Bliss Prize for Best Composition Portfolio entitled: The Psychogeography of Sound and Narrative. He has composed the scores for multiple award winning documentaries and films and has long-time partnerships with leading London based visual and video artists. Dominic is also a multi-instrumentalist session musician whose most recent performances included the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace.
SOUND DESIGNER - LOUISE BURTON
After graduating from the National Film and Television School in Feb 2018 Louise worked on the multi award winning film BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY as well as Netflix's THE OUTLAW KING. Louise is experienced in sound supervising, editing and mixing for Fiction, Documentary, Animation, TV and Games.
EDITOR - JOSH LEVINSKY
CO-DIRECTORS
ON OUR DOORSTEP would not have been possible without the generous contribution of footage from each of our Co-Directors.
CO-DIRECTOR - KATIE BARLOW
Katie has spent the last few years documenting the refugee crisis producing work for the Refugee Council, Channel 4 News, Ai Weiwei, the BBC and UNHCR. She is currently working with musician Sophia Brous on the project, LULLABY MOVEMENT as well as exhibiting photographs she took in Lesbos of the refugee crisis, at the National Portrait Gallery in the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize. Katie has also just begun a photographic project for UNHCR documenting the resettlement of refugees in the UK as well as a VR project: PARWAZ in collaboration with two Afghan brothers who made it to the UK after nearly suffocating in the back of a refrigerated lorry.
CO-DIRECTOR - TOM STEADMAN
Tom is a communications activist, digital content creator and poet. In Calais for four months, he worked day and night to film the final eviction of the 'Jungle' camp, and captured the volunteers working tirelessly to do the work of two governments. In the years since, Tom has been part of the core team that helped grow Choose Love (Formally Help Refugees) from a hashtag to an internationally respected NGO that has helped over a million people. He has run campaigns to free human rights activists at Amnesty International and created mental health awareness apps with the Guardian. Now he is a freelance creative strategist working with organisations to deliver social impact campaigns.
CO-DIRECTOR - ROWAN FARRELL
Rowan is a documentary photographer, artist and filmmaker. In Calais, he co-founded and directed the NGO Refugee Info Bus providing legal information and mobile internet access to refugees. He has worked on photography and film projects for United Nations, UNAids and ITU as well as NGOs Freedom From Torture, Asylum Matters, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and Right To Roam UK.
CO-DIRECTOR - JONATHAN STREET
Jon Street is a visual artist (aka. The Moth Factory) who specialises in film, video, design and projection mapping. His work has been exhibited throughout Europe at music festivals, national theatres, museums, gallery's and large scale public events. His involvement with the Bristol refugee fundraiser, at the Malcolm X Centre, led him to Calais. He worked alongside Help Refugees and Caravans for Calais, relocating women and children's shelters away from the eviction of the Southern part of the 'Jungle' camp. His latest film SIGN NIGHT (a collaboration with the deaf artist Cathy Mager) just won Best International Experimental Film at the Venice Shorts in California, and can still be viewed on the BBC IPlayer.
CO-DIRECTOR - JAMES FISHER
James Fisher is an Australian portrait photographer and film director based in London. His editorial client list includes Vanity Fair, L’Uomo Vogue, Saveur Magazine, Travel+Leisure, Vogue Living and Empire Magazine. James’ work with refugees in Europe forms part of his wider global portraiture project investigating the personal experiences of displaced and marginalised populations.
Our Co-Directors also include Finlay O’Hara, Geoff Motyer & Ian Homer.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - SAFWON SULEYMAN
Saf Suleyman is a self shooting Producer/Director with 11 years experience across current affairs, documentary and NGO production. With 4 years at BBC Panorama Saf has experience across investigative and human interest documentary working on 45+ Panorama films including SEX CRIMES AND THE VATICAN, UNDERCOVER CARE: ABUSE EXPOSED, CONTAMINATED BLOOD: SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH, FAKE SHEIKH EXPOSED and ISIS: TERROR IN IRAQ. Saf has shot and produced content for NGO's including Greenpeace, UNICEF and CBM. He shot a 4 part documentary series for the Chinese giant Tencent and more recently shot and directed content for Rory Stewart’s London Mayoral bid.
Our Executive Producers also include Christopher Hird, founder of Dartmouth Films; Jerry Rothwell, director of THE REASON I JUMP and HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD; Claire Ferguson, director of DESTINATION UNKNOWN and editor of AILEEN: LIFE AND DEATH OF A SERIAL KILLER and Marilyn Thompson