I like to make films about politics and the “ideas behind the news”. Sometimes my work is motivated by a desire to question ideas that seem unhelpful, at other times I’m promoting ideas that I believe might help us, either in understanding controversy or solving it.

Ideas that help

  • When landlines were dangerous – In this film I look at “media panics”, the regular cycle of anxiety that accompanies any new media technology.

Ideas to question

  • The harm caused by the gender binary – Here I examine the assumption that science, nature and human history supports the idea that there are only two sexes.
  • Why the “enemy narrative” won’t fix climate change – We can’t blame our way out of the climate crisis.
  • Does the government really have a “mandate”? – Just because a government has won an election doesn’t mean it can make a strong moral claim to represent the will of the people.
  • Political party democracy – the idea that political party leaders should be chosen by their members

When Landlines Were Dangerous

The hysteria around the dangers of social media got me digging into the history of “media panics”.

The harm caused by the gender binary

In this film I look at the controversy over whether society should recognise trans people’s claims to have changed sex. Opponents of this idea often base their opposition on the premise that it’s common sense that there are only two sexes, and that this is an idea that science, human history and nature all support. Yet if you fact if you dig into these areas you find that there isn’t the support for this idea that you might expect. What’s more, it’s an idea that can do a lot of harm as shown in the often harmful (and still continuing) practice of surgery on children born intersex, that is born with biology that doesn’t seem to fit that model.

Thumbnail of film "Why the enemy narrative won't fix climate change"

Why the ‘enemy narrative’ won’t fix climate change

This film presents the argument of campaigner George Marshall, who counsels against using an “enemy narrative” when campaigning on climate change issues.

Does the government really have a “mandate”?

Here I examine the idea that because a party has won an election it can claim the particular moral authority of a “mandate”.

Is it time to abolish party democracy?

It seems obvious that political parties should be democratic, but really it’s actually a pretty bad idea.