Welcome. I hope you are well. I’m Mairéad (pronounced Muh-raid), and I work as a Creative Producer, Trauma-informed Group Facilitator and Filmmaker. With my wide-ranging skillset and experience working across art forms and communities, I facilitate collaborations that centre these 4 Cs: Compassion, Collaboration, Communication and Creativity. Following my master’s in Creative Health, most of my work has sat at the intersection of arts and health. I enjoy bringing people together- to feel heard, to connect and to produce creatively ambitious and meaningful projects.
Here is a selection of my recent creative work:
Creative Producer for Music Out The Ville & Filmmaker for Music In The Ville
This year, I secured Arts Council England funding to develop a trauma-informed pilot music workshop supporting men leaving prison in collaboration with Music In The Ville. I have commissioned musicians, lived experience advisors and specialist consultants and navigated partnerships across a highly complex system.
I also created this short film above last year which gives you a taste of what Music In The Ville is about! The film reached over 5,000 people on digital platforms, led to volunteering enquiries, donations & a hugely positive response including from people with lived experience.
Director and Producer of Short Film for leading UK public body
Over the last year I have collaborated with a leading UK public body, other freelance creatives and local communities to direct and produce a short documentary exploring community engagement and 4 masterclasses with UK experts in storytelling and grassroots activism. I hope to share them publicly soon.
Director of Photography: Alan Stockdale.
Producer of Masterclasses for leading UK public body
Filmmaker- Cysgod Rhag y Glaw / Umbrella Against the Rain (arts & health project)- for NHS Charities Together and partners
I was commissioned by NHS Charities Together to create this impact film documenting the ‘Cysgod Rhag y Glaw / Umbrella Against the Rain’ arts and health project in North Wales. I attended and filmed bilingual groups across the region, including groups with learning disabilities, mental health challenges and physical disabilities. Groups and staff fed back that I’d navigated relationship-building with warmth and ease, and was skilful in knowing when to turn the camera off.
Filmmaker for OCD Action’s OCD Awareness Week Digital Campaign- which reached over 1 million people
I created these short-form videos of young people with OCD (a condition I have lived experience of), for OCD Action during my time there as Content and Communications officer. I planned the campaign with Cara Gordon, Communications, Engagement and Fundraising Manager and created these assets which organically reached over 1 million people across TikTok and Instagram. Cara said:
‘Mairéad brought real care to it. She's self-sufficient, proactive and properly meticulous, and I trusted her completely to lead on difficult content. She immersed herself in the subject matter, thought hard about how lived experience came across on screen, and had a knack for making contributors feel relaxed and respected throughout filming - which is half the reason the films connected the way they did.
She's a rare mix: a strong creative instinct, and the care to treat every contributor as a person first. Exactly the kind of filmmaker who can challenge stigma without ever turning the people in front of the camera into a means to an end.’
‘Communities are not hard to reach… they are communities who are underserved, and the fact they're underserved means they're not seen, they're not recognised, and actually… they’re not valued’.
Quote from interview with Sonja Scantlebury-Camara
Filmmaker- Rising Voices- for Comics Youth x Environment Agency
‘Storytelling isn't frivolous, it's not a fad, it’s what makes us human. We think in stories. We understand who we are in the form of story. We are living a story every moment of our waking lives, even when we're asleep. We dream in stories, there's no getting away from it. So it's not something that any serious organisation can afford to ignore, especially an organisation for which public engagement is so unbelievably important. You have to be communicating with story. If you're not communicating with story, then you're not communicating’
Quote from interview with Will Store
I was commissioned by Comics Youth to create a short film documenting Rising Voices- their collaboration between Comics Youth CIC and the Environment Agency that explores how creative practice, co-production and lived experience can help shape more inclusive approaches to flood resilience. I filmed, produced, directed and edited this film (I will add the link in October upon release in Flood Action week). The animations are by the wonderful Rosa Kusabbi.
Filmmaker- The Willow Collective- for Am Cymru funded by Arts Council Wales
I was commissioned to create a short film for AmCam, Am Cymru’s digital film festival, funded by Arts Council Wales. Lea Glyn, head of Am’s digital content said ‘The Willow Collective is a thoughtful and engaging portrait of a community in Rhyl coming together through creativity. Mairéad is an excellent filmmaker, and showcased a unique and creative perspective through her film. She is highly efficient and timely to liaise with, and made the process of commissioning, creating and sharing the film easy.’ DoP: David Baker.
Creative Producer and Filmmaker- THE CALL CENTRE
I creatively produced and documented the last two years of THE CALL CENTRE, a monthly performance programme concerned with the voice and the unspeakable and featuring leading contemporary artists such as Samra Mayanja, Ebun Sodipo and Jemma Desai. Watch the performances here: https://www.youtube.com/@newyearr_newmee/videos
Co-producer and Director of Photography DEAD DAD- commissioned by Almeida Theatre
I co-produced and had a lot of fun filming this experimental short film where artist Samra Mayanja auditions an actor to play her father in the ongoing performance of LIFE! Commissioned and screened at the Almeida Theatre.
Co-producer- She Could Fly: Documentary Escape Game
I co-produced ‘She Could Fly: Documentary Escape Game’ which combines comic art, documentary films and interactive gameplay to explore the deeply misunderstood mental illness, OCD. To develop this, I worked with lived experience experts and scientists, psychologists and medical humanities experts from Maudsley Psychiatric Hospital, Oxford University and Cambridge University.