Catherine Donaldson - Director
About
Catherine Donaldson
Catherine is fascinated by the different worlds in which people live. In 2004 she combined her theatre and film experience with a degree in Archaeology and Anthropology to become a documentary filmmaker. She honed her skills working with community, arts and educational groups before founding Eggplant12 Films Ltd in 2007. She produced and directed her first feature documentary, Beauty and Brains, in 2010 with the support of the World Bank. In 2016 she returned to fiction with His Girl, which came out of a Southwark Youth Offending Services strategy to prevent peer-on-peer exploitation of girls. She is currently developing on her feature film Between and PhD about asylum seekers and the state of limbo. She is a Teaching Fellow in Filmmaking at University of Sussex.
WHAT We DO
We create original content - both fiction and documentary to bring social issues to life.
We use an original combination of strategy, anthropology and filmmaking to produce intimate and enlightening results. Our methodology allows us to bring films and research to life because we are passionate about understanding how people live, think and feel. This could be achieved by monitoring policy processes, translating programmatic experiences into compelling communication products, networking and learning together, or by creating spaces for dialogue and debate about social issues. We delivers high quality communication products whilst building capacity with the participants we are working with filming, and encourage continuous learning and feedback. The end product is both a film product but also a qualitative process of engaging beneficiary views, and capturing their voices and perspectives. Our objectives are to collaborate with organisations on how to use film, documentaries and media to conduct advocacy on global social issues – ranging from disability rights in the UK to the rights of sexual minorities in South Asia.
HOW WE Do IT
At Eggplant12 Films:
We discover and frame what is important in a way that provides emotional content and meaning.
We do this by understanding the narrative of the brief and how this narrative fits into the overall plan.
We take the time to engage with the participants and by building stronger relationships the insights deepen.
We can then present the findings in a story of either documentary or fictional form.