The Partners

DR BEN HARBISHER - Director #SDGFilmfest

Ben Harbisher is an Associate Professor in Media Production. He currently teaches video and post-production in addition to supervising Doctoral projects for the Coventry University Group.

As a researcher, his publications include The Mediation of Sustainability (2023), Power, Media and the Covid 19 Pandemic: Framing Public Discourse. Harbisher, B. and Price, S. (2021). London: Routledge, and Social Control Policies in Times of Pandemics. Hellman, M., Kettunen, T., Salmivaara, S. and Stoneham, J (eds). (2022). London: Oxford University Press.

He has also been published in Critical Discourse Studies (2016), Surveillance and Society (2015), Journalism, Power and Investigation (2019), and Surveillance in Action (2018). His research interests include state and corporate surveillance, social movements, political and media discourse.

Mamby Aruan

Skilled, sharp, and presentable communication specialist with relevant skill to understand the corporate objectives and its mission statements, experienced and have proven ability to enhance brand value and operate the web and social media to engage with target audiences and get the corporate core messages across.

A Communication practitioner with the experience in Corporate Communication, Integrated Marketing Communication, Communication Strategies Consultant, Lecturer for Public Relation & Marketing Communication studies at LSPR.

RHYS DAVIES

Rhys is a Senior Lecturer in film at De Montfort University, Leicester, England, where as an industry practitioner he brings his ongoing film and television production experience to the learning environment. He has an MSc in Information Technology and an MA in Creative Technologies, and is the Programme leader on the International Film Production MA which was develop alongside Creative Media Skills at Pinewood studios.

A director/writer his feature film haves had theatrical release and worldwide distribution and he has worked with actors such as Warwick Davis (Harry Potter), Colin Baker (Dr Who), Vicky McClure ( This Is England ), Jon Campling ( Harry Potter) and Laya Lewis ( Skins ). In 2011 Rhys was contracted by BAFTA winning Sleepydog Productions as writer for their slate of productions for the North American television market. Following this he has developed several feature scripts, two of which are optioned for development. His third feature, Acid Daemons, is currently in production.

In 2018 he established Leicester Media Productions at DMU – a production company to source and manage paid media work for students.

He is a member of BAFTA crew, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has a Post-Graduate Certificate in Higher Education.

MARISOL "CANDY" HERNANDEZ, M.SI

Candy Hernandez, MA, FAPR has over 15 years’ experience in the field of TV, Film & Video Production. She worked in the Philippine TV Industry, GMA 7 and the award winning documentary production company Probe Productions and has also worked with National Geographics ASIA, she has produced TV programs, TV commercials, music videos, and documentaries.

In 2005 Candy moved to Jakarta, Indonesia to take up her appointment as the Head of Media Centre, Publication & Design at LSPR Institute of Communication and Business. She is also a lecturer at LSPR and teaches an array of communication and media related subjects to University students, majoring in Mass Communication for the subect TV, Film and Video Productions and Media Convergence. Also teaches students majoring in International Relations and Public Relations for the subject Communicating Climate Change and Environment and also teaching Intercultural Communications

In 2019 Candy was appointed as the Director for LSPR International Relations and Partnership Office and also serve at ASEAN PR network (APRN) as the Managing Director, since 2018 and has been part of the Board of Directors Regional Delegate at Large at Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communcation Management from 2019-2020.

Candy has a Master Degree in Corporate Communications from LSPR Institute of Communication and Business, Post Graduate Programme in Jakarta Indonesia. Graduated on December 9, 2011.

PROFESSOR STUART PRICE

Stuart Price is Professor of Media and Political Discourse at De Montfort University, UK, and Director of the Media Discourse Centre. He is the author of the monographs Worst-Case Scenario? Governance, mediation and the security regime (2011), Brute Reality: power, discourse and the mediation of war (2010), and Discourse Power Address (2007).

In addition, he is the editor, with Ruth Sanz Sabido, of Sites of Protest (2016) and Contemporary Protest and the Legacy of Dissent (2015). His edited book Journalism, Power and Investigation: global and activist perspectives appeared in 2019. Current research includes a study of Protest in Spain (undertaken over a six year period), and work for a new book entitled Corbyn and the Media (due out in 2020). He is one of the founding editors of the International Journal of Media Discourse.

Rachel Carter

Rachel’s background is as a film producer and script consultant, working with BFI, Creative England, UKFC and Tiger Aspect Productions. Rachel has been commissioned by the UK Film Council for award-winning short films, and has co-produced a feature film with a BAFTA nominated director which premiered at Birmingham Film Festival in November 2021, winning Best Feature Film. Rachel trained in producing with the BBC, in script development with The Script Factory, and has been awarded two Royal Television Society awards for Best Production Craft as a Producer, and Best Short Film.

As a Senior Lecturer in Film Production at De Montfort University, Rachel’s practice-based research centres on the effectiveness of the UK film industry’s support for emerging filmmakers and new filmmaking models, and independent sector genre filmmaking. Rachel is also interested in immersive character-based gaming narratives, and contemporary film marketing. The latter has inspired her recent paper which proposed to re-frame and re-market previously mis-marketed films in the wake of #MeToo and #TimesUp: Jennifer’s Body Re-Framed: Demonic Succubus as Feminist Cult Icon, for Bodies as Battlegrounds: Disruptive Sexualities in Cult Cinema (The 15th Cine-Excess International Conference and Festival on Global Cult Film Traditions, Birmingham City University, October 2021, Rachel E. Carter & Georgia Blood).

Rachel is a Senior Fellow of Advance HE, and External Examiner for the London Film School’s MA Filmmaking (with Warwick University), and for the BA Film Production Salford University (MediaCityUK). She also continues to provide script consultancy to Creative England, and is on the panel of the Raindance International Scriptwriting Competition. Rachel is a Trustee of Flatpack Film Festival and Arts Organisation.

DR PAUL SMITH

Paul Smith is currently course leader for the BA (Hons) Filmmaking course at Nottingham Trent University University.

Paul has worked for over 10 years in the television and film industry, in a variety of production roles. Production roles have taken the form of post-production in children’s television, camera (first cut, ITV) directing and cinematography roles for factual productions (BBC, RSA Films), and commercial based productions. More recently Paul has acted as producer and director on a variety of short films, which have been shown at international film festivals (Bilbao, Cannes, Madrid, Nottingham – Bang, Exposures).

Additionally, Paul is an external examiner for Pearson’s Creative Media Production Higher National (HN) programme, International Higher National Programme and an EE for the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) (BA (Hons) Post Production Film and TV and BA (Hons) Independent Filmmaking).

19 years of experience working in an FE and HE environment. Paul has taught at level 2 to 6, on BTEC vocational programmes, HND, Foundation Degrees, BA (Hons) and BSC (Hons) in film and television production. Vocationally focused, Paul has taught and instructed undergraduate students digital editing packages and filming techniques of multi-camera and single camera productions.

Paul’s current research interests focus on:

• Filmmaking from within.
• Poverty filmmaking.
• Film and television industry collaborations within HE.
• Living Theory.
• Critical Reflection – the impact of the Critical Incident Questionnaire (CIQ).

ANDREW TRIGG

UK national Andrew Trigg is a multi-talented filmmaker who has made dramatic films and documentary-style films for television channels, corporations, aid projects and governmental clients in the UK, USA, Australia and Indonesia. He aims to tell world-class stories that engage audiences, explain issues and inspire positive action.

Andrew is currently working on “Getting Better All The Time”, a documentary film about stroke recovery that he shot in the UK throughout 2017 and that he is now editing for a UK release.

Andrew was educated at Imperial College London and the University of Warwick. He trained in filmmaking at Sydney Film School, and has worked as director, cinematographer and editor on projects for organisations as diverse as NET TV, The Indonesia Channel, USAID, Chemonics, Accor Hospitality, Clean Up Indonesia, UNICEF, the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture, Yamaha Musical Instruments, Ephindo Energy, Risco Energy, Prime Plaza Hotels and Resorts and Coca-Cola.

Andrew is also an accomplished theatre director and actor, and he teaches Theatre Directing as well as TV, Film and Video production at the London School of Public Relations.

JUDY GRAY ROYKA

Judy Gray Royka is the English Preparatory Program Director at the American University of Phnom Penh (AUPP), Cambodia and Oral Communication class instructor. Her main areas of interest are in drama in ESL, project-based learning and voicing techniques for better communication. She has presented at many international and national conferences and enjoys being involved in judging public speaking and debate competitions in Cambodia.

JOHN COSTER

John Coster is a UK based Journalist and Educator. He is the Founder of the Documentary Media Centre that organizes events, education-based activities and workshops using documentary film, photography, audio and new media at the ‘intersection’ of real people, real places, real events.

He also runs the annual Doc Media Festival programme of free events and workshops on the theme of global citizens. John is passionate about development, delivering guest lectures at schools and universities across the world.

He lectures at De Montfort University on the Communication Arts BA (Hons) and Media Production BSc (Hons) courses.

Steve Graham

Steven Graham is the English Preparatory Program Director at the American University of Phnom Penh (AUPP), Cambodia and a founding member of Udon Education Foundation (UEF) in Udon Thani. His main interests are in English for Specific Purposes (ESP), English for Academic Purposes (EAP), teacher training, primary school teaching and learning materials, and speech recognition development and implementation. Steven has published extensively and is a frequent presenter at national seminars and international conferences. He reviews books and has also been a regular contributor to the Bangkok Post in Thailand.

LSPR Institute of Communication and Business

LSPR Institute of Communication and Business, aims to be the role model in Communication Science application and development in Indonesia and to be recognized internationally. LSPR currently has centres in Jakarta and Bali, with over 20,000 graduates, 6,000 current students, and 50 international partnerships. LSPR has recently launched a new state of the art campus at Transpark Bekasi focusing on Performing Arts, Digital Film making, Broadcast Journalism, Digital Media Communication & Advertising, Entrepreneurship Business Communication and Hospitality Communication.

MEDIA DISCOURSE CENTRE

The Media Discourse Centre at De Montfort University, is renowned for its strong focus on the global dimension of mediated events, culture and politics. Its large cohort of International PhDs is drawn from Brazil, Iraq, Kuwait, Nigeria, Lebanon, China, and Saudi Arabia. Members of its interdisciplinary staff (both full and part-time) are engaged in a wide variety of academic projects, from the study of China’s Belt and Road initiative, to the analysis of Electronic Dance Music culture. Other currents of enquiry include Social Media and Surveillance and the Catalan independence crisis.

The Centre is closely aligned with the Channel Four/De Montfort Investigative Journalism team. Our doctoral research topics include social media use in the Brazilian favelas, the manipulation of online gendered identity in Iraq, surveillance and society in Nigeria, internet rumour in China, and a study of feminist film-making in the Middle East.

THE DOCUMENTARY MEDIA CENTRE

The Documentary Media Centre operates on the ‘community of practice’ model:

• it supports globally active documentarians in 71 countries – Latin America, West & East Africa, South Asia and South-East Asia.
• it offers researchers access to this documentary media content – documentary film, photography, audio and new media.
• it organizes pop-up events – Doc Media Centre or Doc Media Festival programmes.

Research interest: Documentary Media, Documentarians & Archives, Documentary Audiences, Community Media, Solutions and Constructive Journalism, Digital Storytelling, Conflict Media.

Hosei University

Hosei University (法政大学, Hōsei Daigaku, lit. University of Law and Politics) is a private research university in Chiyoda City, the heart of Tokyo, Japan. Hosei University is one of the most prestigious and well known private university regarded as comparable with the Tokyo-area elite selective private universities collectively known as “MARCH”. It has an entrance examination difficulty level that is in the top 10 for a private university in Japan.

Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS)

Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) (English: University of Malaysia Sarawak) is a Malaysian public university located in Kota Samarahan, Sarawak. UNIMAS was officially incorporated on 24 December 1992. Recently, UNIMAS has been ranked among the top 200 in Asian University Rankings 2017 by QS World University Rankings.

The university took in its first students, numbering 118, in 1993 with the opening of the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Resource Science and Technology. These students were temporarily located at Telekom Training College, Simpang Tiga, Kuching, until 1994, when the university moved to its East Campus in Kota Samarahan, Sarawak. The university’s East Campus at Kota Samarahan was officially launched by the Prime Minister, YAB Dato’ Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad on Independence Day, 31 August 1993.

Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation

The Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU) is amongst Malaysia’s Premier Private Universities, and is where a unique fusion of technology, innovation and creativity works effectively towards preparing professional graduates for significant roles in business and society globally. APU has earned an enviable reputation as an award-winning University through its achievements in winning a host of prestigious awards at national and international levels.

LEICESTER MEDIA PRODUCTIONS

Leicester Media Productions is an innovative new project that obtains paid work for students in the areas of videography, photography, web design, social media, and graphic design. In addition to the contracted work students benefit from an increased understanding of the industry, heightened knowledge of client relationship, and enhanced future employability.