SEAN McALLISTER, Filmmaker, United Kingdom

Sean McAllister left school at 16 to work in a series of low-paid low-skilled factory jobs in his hometown of Hull before finding a camera. He filmed his way into the National Film and Television School (NFTS), graduating in 1996. Since then he has made films for BBC and Channel 4; working in the UK and internationally.

His candid, frank films depict, with extraordinary intimacy, the lives of ordinary people who are struggling to survive but who are survivors. Sean has a ‘Vérité’ approach to his filmmaking where he becomes involved, he intervenes and he asks the questions, which often provoke his subjects (and himself) into insights, thoughts, and realisations, which they never knew they had.

Sean’s work continues to inspire, to surprise and to fascinate audiences, right from his early films ‘Working For The Enemy’ (1997) and ‘The Minders’ (1998) (both nominated for a Royal Television Society Awards), to his more recent successes, such as ‘The Liberace Of Baghdad’, ‘Japan: A Story Of Love And Hate’, ‘The Reluctant Revolutionary’, A Northern Soul and ‘A Syrian Love Story’. ‘The Liberace Of Baghdad’, about Iraqi pianist Samir Peter, won the Special Jury Prize (World Documentary) at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005.