Meet our Producing Truth programme cohort!

From May till July twelve mid-level independent feature doc producers from across the UK will take part in Producing Truth, a training programme supported by the ScreenSkills Film Skills Fund with contributions from UK film productions. The course is delivered by BFI Doc Society Fund, Docs Ireland, Scottish Documentary Institute, and Screen Alliance Wales.

Producing Truth focuses on building core production and business skills, confidence and a support network for independent producers working on documentaries outside of commercial structures. Participants will benefit from a programme tailored to the distinct challenges of developing, funding and distributing independent nonfiction cinema today, delivered by a consortium of industry leading partners. They will also attend the Docs Ireland market in person in June.

From an open call for applications, twelve producers were selected. We are pleased to introduce you to them all here.

If you have questions about the programme or want to get in touch with any of the participants, please email sanne@docsociety.org

Charlotte Hailstone

Charlotte Hailstone is a Scottish producer, with 15 years production experience. She set up Hailstone Films to produce films for cinema, with a focus on working closely with author/directors and international co-operation. She is a long-time collaborator of Victor Kossakovsky’s, working on the Oscar-shortlisted films Aquarela and Gunda, and most recently as co-producer of Architecton which premiered in competition at Berlinale 2024. She produced Born in Damascus by Laura Wadha, which won the Crystal Bear at Berlinale 2022, and has since won awards and special mentions at festivals around the world, and is featured on the Guardian Documentaries. Charlotte is one of Ji.hlava IDFF’s Emerging Producers 2022, was awarded their Pop Up Film Residency, and is an alumna of Scottish Documentary Institute’s New Voices.

Clara Harris

Clara Harris is a documentary film producer based in Scotland. After beginning her career at Stockholm based Sisyfos Film, she has since opened a sister branch of the company based in her hometown of Edinburgh. She has produced documentary shorts Yellow is the Color of Happiness and There's Not Much We Can Do, and is currently working on feature documentaries Elevated, Depot-Vente and Queer Animals.

Fiona Blair

Fiona Blair is an established network television executive producer with credits including presenter-led documentary, observational series, factual series and investigative singles for the BBC and Channel 4. She worked within BBC TV Current Affairs in London and Belfast for over 20 years, working her way up from researcher to executive producer - ending up with a focus on Current Affairs for young audiences. Since leaving the BBC in 2021 she has worked as an executive producer at Waddell Media, Walking on Air and Firecrest Films. Last Summer Fiona Blair launched an independent production company, Blair Black, with Aaron Black, a shooting documentary director. The company is based in Belfast, has just entered production on a first three part series for BBC Northern Ireland and is managing funded development from Channel 4 and ITV. On their slate, and the reason for the company's creation, is a feature documentary project, intended for cinema release.

James Heath

James Heath is a BAFTA-nominated producer of the feature film The Fitzroy (SXSW award-winning). He joined MTP as an Exec in 2019, taking over the day-to-day running of the company with a focus on developing a slate of original projects and moving into international co-production with Saving Christmas Spirit being the company's first international co-pro in 2022. Features currently in development include, Ride by writer/director Dean Loxton developed through the BFI, Creative Europe backed Tinginys by director Maximillien Dejoie and BFI Doc Society and Screen Scotland backed documentary Love Letters with director Daniel Cook. Currently producing and in post production on Screen Ireland backed Spilt Milk by director Brian Durnin and BFI, EURIMAGES backed Leonora in the Morning Light by director Thor Klein.
James is a proud alumnus of Berlinale, Rotterdam labs & EAVE producers’ workshop. James and MTP were recently awarded funding from the British Film Institute’s highly competitive Global Screen Fund to create a new drama-focused production company: Randan, with Bombito Productions producer, Reece Cargan that will launch this Spring.

Jay Bedwani

Jay Bedwani is a Welsh filmmaker specialising in character led documentaries. His debut feature Donna premiered at Frameline International Film Festival in San Francisco in 2022, before being released in cinemas in the UK and Ireland. Donna was BAFTA Cymru nominated for Best Feature, long-listed for a BIFA Discovery Award and BAFTA Outstanding Debut by a British Director. His short films have played in a number of international film festivals with My Mother and Stretch winning short film awards in the U.K. He has trained with Ffilm Cymru, the British Council and NFTS, and is the recipient of a John Brabourne Award. He is currently directing his second feature documentary, with production taking place in Wales and Berkeley, California.

Joanna Wright

Joanna Wright is a producer, director and curator based in north west Wales. Through her company Tiny City she produces artist-led projects that cross over between documentary, installation and digital platforms. Their projects have screened at The Institute of Contemporary Art, Aesthetica, Channel 4, BBC, The Space, Sky, True/False, IDFA, UNESCO and Ars Electronica amongst others. Joanna is a research fellow at MIT Co-Creation Studio / Open Documentary Lab where she co-convenes the access and disability innovation working group. She is an advisory committee member for IDA’s Non-Fiction Access Initiative and a member of FWD-Doc.

Mags Gavan

Mags Gavan is an Emmy and double BAFTA Award winning, self-shooting director and producer. She is known for ground-breaking television and feature-length documentaries and cutting-edge television series. She has worked across a wide range of topics and formats, from presenter-led and observational series to access-driven current affairs specials, reality TV and award-winning theatrically released observational feature documentaries.
Mags has created and co-produced films that made it to prestigious festivals like IDFA, Locarno, and Movies that Matter, amongst others .

Margareta Szabo

Margareta Szabo, originally from Budapest, Hungary, is the co-founder of Labor of Love Films, a Yorkshire-based film production company. She's an accomplished film producer and a graduate of Pázmány Péter University, Hungary's oldest and one of its most prestigious institutions of higher education. She’s a Berlinale Talents alumna, and Sheffield Doc/Fest Future Producer School alumna. In 2022 Creative UK's Female Founders initiative recognised her as one of Britain’s rising female entrepreneurs. Margareta produced multiple audience-award winning documentary A Bunch of Amateurs, which received Grierson, The Big Screen Awards nominations, Grand Jury Awards at the Santa Barbara International FF, among other accolades. Her portfolio includes feature documentary Voices of the Sea for POV/PBS, celebrated at several international film festivals, and Hotel Folly for BBC Storyville.

Nan Davies

Nan Davies is a Welsh film producer whose award-winning shorts have screened at BAFTA and Academy Award qualifying festivals around the world. Before moving to film, she produced video content and TV commercials for brands including BFI, Tesco and Swarovski. Her broadcast credits include Series Producer on Best Before, a non-scripted music series for Channel 4, and Development Producer on BBC Four’s Life Cinematic, which profiled iconic filmmakers including Sofia Coppola.
She’s been selected for several talent programmes including BFI Insight, EIFF Talent Lab and is a BAFTA Connect member. She works in development on a freelance basis and recently spent six months at Ffilm Cymru as their Development Executive.
She’s drawn to stories that examine contemporary social themes through unique and inspiring characters and is currently developing a slate of scripted and documentary features through her Cardiff-based company One Wave Films.

Sara Suliman

Sara Suliman is a UK-based Sudanese Filmmaker; a Chevening scholar, researcher, activist, producer, and director; and founder of Fenti (Dates in Nubian Dialect) Productions, an Independent Film Production House.
Sara is a dedicated feminist and youth advocate, believing that women and Sudanese youth have a story yearning to be told and yet to be heard. She has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Ahfad University for Women in Sudan (2010) and in 2017 was awarded a MA in Gender Studies from SOAS, University of London. Her first feature film Heroic Bodies had its world premiere at IDFA (2022) and was selected in the Frontlight section. It’s the first Sudanese feature film to be selected in a section in the history of IDFA. The film also won the Audience Award in Malmo Arab Film Festival 2023 and won the Shireen Abu Akleh award for Best Documentary Film in Jerusalem Arab Film Festival. The film was also a runner up for both the BURAQ Award & Audience Choice at MENA Film Festival (Vancouver).

Taira Akbar

Taira Akbar is a documentary producer focusing on narratives that advance perspectives. She started her career at the BBC on The Tower: A Tale of Two Cities and The £800M Railway Station, developed a dexterity for long-form documentary, and went on to independently produce feature-length documentary When Two Worlds Collide. It debuted in January 2016 at the Sundance Film Festival and landed the Special Jury Prize for Best Debut Feature, a Cinema Eye Nomination and Producer Award for Best Documentary Award Political, TheWIFTS Foundation International. Since then, Taira has worked on multiple independent ventures, including a Ford-Foundation / Doc Society funded documentary set in the US capital about the revival of Martin Luther King’s 1968 Poor People’s Campaign. She is currently in development with her next independent feature and seeking opportunities to re-emerge as a UK based filmmaker.

Una Murphy

Una Murphy has worked as an independent filmmaker and in-house producer/director for broadcasters including RTE, UTV and BBC Wales, producing and directing factual programmes and documentaries such as Eye of the Storm, RTE (2002), Bridie, The Girl From Donegal, UTV (2011), and making corporate films, for nonprofits and charities like the Irish Hospice Foundation in Dublin.
She is the co-founder of VIEWdigital, a community media digital platform in Belfast which highlights social issues, with award-nominated stories on Migrant Women and the Cost-of-Living Crisis. Over the past few years, Una has also taught on Media & Broadcast Production and Journalism BA and MA courses at Queen’s University Belfast, University of the West of England, Bristol and Coventry University, and developed media training courses for trade unions, community organisations and charities.
Una is a former member of Ofcom’s Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland.