HOLLY BLACK

Holly Black is a director, producer, visual artist and self shooting PD of documentary and experimental film. Holly is a co-founder and co-director of Black Bark Films, a female led film company that creates authentic and socially conscious films by working collaboratively, and offering workshops, facilitation and radically inclusive filmmaking practices. Black Bark Films focus on working with social change, food and farming, artists in theatre settings and young people. Holly understands and respects the power of storytelling through a visual medium and considers documentary as one of the most powerful tools we possess in the current sociological climate – not just as a tool to transmit information but as something that can help unlock parts of ourselves in both the comfort of familiarity and the edges of possibility not yet considered.

Holly works in education as an Associate Lecturer on the Filmmaking BA at the University of the West of England, Lead Mentor and Co-Facilitator for the BFI Film Academy Bristol, Mentor for the BFI South West and Screenology’s mentoring programme for their degree level students – alongside developing a feature length documentary centring on the journey of a democratic school based in the south of Spain.

Holly’s work with Black Bark Films has been screened at the Cube Microplex, the Arnolfini, the M Shed, Exeter Phoenix, Two Short Nights, Circus International Film Festival, Commoning Thread, Stroud Film Festival, Women’s International Film Festival Nigeria, Cornwall Film Festival, The Palace Film Festival, Festival de films Alimenterre, Agrofilm, British Documentary Film Festival, New Earth International Film Festival, Courage Film Festival, Greenmotions Film festival, Annual Copenhagen Film Festival, Hebrides International Film Festival. The feature length documentary In Our Hands can be seen on Waterbear.com.

Holly studied Human Rights (MA), Cultural Studies (BA Hons), Art (Foundation Diploma) for which she won ‘Best Experimental Film’ in the BBC Student Film Festival for ‘Journey 2’ (2004).

Holly uses she/her pronouns.