COURSES

THE TEAM

Dr Alison Kahn

Alison Kahn has an MA in Visual Anthropology from Goldsmith's College, University of London, and an M.Phil and D.Phil in Material Culture and Social Anthropology from the University of Oxford. She founded the Oxford Ethnographic Film Society in 2001 at Linacre College, Oxford where she has since run many conferences, workshops and screenings in documentary and ethnographic filmmaking.

Alison has produced and directed several films for educational purposes and for television. Her first association with a feature documentary has been acclaimed in the US. This film, ASK NOT directed by Johnny Symons is about gay rights in the US military and challenges the US policy called Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Alison's three-part series on Tribal Rites was commissioned by Discovery Channel USA in 2003 and broadcast the following year. Alison worked as its assistant producer and assistant director. The series was a cross-cultural investigation focused on tribal rites of passage, witchcraft and warfare. Alison has recently received a grant from the National Digital Film Archive via Oxfordshire's film funding body, Screen South, to produce and direct a film about pioneer women filmmakers of the twentieth century. This project is called Captured by Women

Alison is the author of the book The Pope's Curator: Anthropology and the Catholic Church soon to be available, and is presently working on her second book Traditions in Jeopardy: Reflections on the Digital Era.

She is now the director of this initiative to bring digital media to the academic researcher in the form of the Oxford Academy of Documentary Film (OADF).

Dr Aaron Kahn

Aaron Kahn is responsible for applications, payments, and accounts at OADF. He is a Lecturer in Spanish at the University of Sussex and teaches a variety of courses towards the undergraduate language degree programmes. These include translation, oral interpreting, Renaissance and Twentieth Century Spanish Literature, Comparative European Literature, Comparative Film, and Dystopian Cinema. Aaron has published a book and various peer-reviewed articles, while also presenting papers at international conferences in the USA, the UK and Spain.

Dr Maarten Roos

Maarten worked as a planetary scientist, specializing in planetary atmospheres, for fifteen years at the Paris Observatory and the Lisbon Observatory. He has consulted on European Space Agency committees, such as the Solar System Working Group and the Science Programme Committee. He has extensive experience with public outreach and education in Portugal, the Netherlands and the UK. More recently he has undergone several filmmaking courses, and has produced informative and educational videos. Some of his work can be viewed at:

Mr Phil Cox

Phil produced and directed his first films in Scotland, completing an honours degree in languages and literature at the University of Edinburgh. With a primary interest in documentary he created Native Voice Films with his brother in 1998. For the last 10 years he has worked both as a director and producer of award winning broadcast and Indy documentaries as well as a freelance news cameraman. He is fluent in Spanish and has worked for a considerable period in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. He has recently been filming in the Sudan, Bolivia and Pakistan. In 2004 he was awarded the Rory Peck Award for his work in Sudan and has since been nominated for 7 other international awards. He is now developing Native Voice's first feature film as well as producing a feature documentary in Kolkata. Phil lectures and workshops internationally on documentary and working in hostile environments. Phil has a passion for his bicycle, chocolate cake and bad haircuts.

Dr. Zemirah Moffat

Zem Moffat achieved her doctorate in visual anthropology from the University of Westminster; one of the first of a new wave of accredited practice-led researchers to emerge from the quickly changing UK academic scene. She is a strong advocate for audio-visual research being as valuable, convincing and worthy as its written counterparts.

In December 2008 in her role as administrator for the AHRC funded support network AVPhD, she produced Viva Viva the UK's first exhibition of AV doctorates. Housed in the University of Westminster's cavernous P3 gallery over twenty multi and interdisciplinary single-screen works and installations, from cultural studies, fine art, anthropology, film and new media were displayed alongside their written theses. It included her own thesis and film Mirror Mirror, premiered in 2007 at London's National Film Theatre as part of the Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, it continues to travel, inform and promote the queer people and culture it portrays.

Heavily influenced by the shared anthropological praxis of French ethnographic filmmaker Jean Rouch and the education mission of pioneer American anthropologist Margaret Mead, Zem Moffat is a passionate believer in the vital role film can play in building creative bridges between subjects, academia and their audiences. She is currently working at the University of Kent teaching their Masters module in Advanced Visual Anthropology.

Ms. Margaret Loescher

Margaret Loescher studied Anthropology at Cambridge University, went on to receive a Masters in Visual Anthropology at Manchester University, and then completed the Advanced Programme at the National Film and Television School. Her filmmaking experiences vary from production and camera-work to direction and has directed for Channel 4 and the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). She is the director of a feature documentary, Pulled from the Rubble, which has played at numerous international documentary festivals around the world. She lectures on film and the process of making it.

Ms. Yulia Martynova

Yulia discovered her love for editing while studying for a BA Film & Video at the London College of Printing. In 2002 she enrolled for a 2 year MA editing course at the National Film and Television School to extend her understanding of the aesthetics and craft of her chosen profession, as well as gain a creative insight into Final Cut Pro software for Apple Mac workstation. Since graduating, Yulia has edited promos and various short films and documentaries that won awards at different festivals around the world. In 2005, Yulia formed Zorky Films, which has co-produced a highly critically acclaimed documentary As The Sun Begins To Set and aims to produce some of the UK's best art documentaries.