Overview
In addition to teaching I am a filmmaker and creative producer, working in Wales and internationally.
I work with documentary film, photography, sound and archive collections, often working in collaboration with communities to produce projects that re-examine established narratives. My work has been screened internationally, including at the Institute for Contemporary Art, The British Film Institute, British Council, Channel 4 and BBC.
Current work includes a longitudinal, multi media project documenting the final decommissioning of the Nuclear Power station in Trawsfynydd, supported by Ffilm Cymru Wales and a cross media collaboration commissioned by BBC's digital arts platform The Space. I was was the recipient of an Arts Council of Wales award to work with The UK’s Centre for Alternative Technology, as long term artist in residence with their Zero Carbon Britain Research project. In 2015 I was awarded the Theodore Randall International Chair in Art and Design at Alfred University, New York.
I graduated from the UK’s National Film and Television School with an MA in Documentary direction, and a BA in Fine Art from the University of the Arts, London (Camberwell College of Art) Prior to studying at the National Film School I worked as an art director and designer for award winning TV, film and Theatre projects, based in New York. I am a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and am a current fellow of the MIT Open Documentary Lab.
Teaching and Supervision
I am the course leader for MA Film at Bangor, where I teach the pratice modules and the dissertation project. I am the external moderator for university validated MA & BA fine art courses.
I have also taught across creative media production modules for the BA courses, fine art, documentary theory and history, creative practice, emerging documentary methods and artist moving image. I supervise undergraduate film dissertation projects and am co-supervisor for art and documentary practice based PhD work.
Students on the modules I teach have won a number of prestigious awards and nominations, including BAFTA Cymru, and multiple nominations at the Royal Television Society, both in Wales and the UK. In 2018 MA students were in the top 3 at the National Royal Television Society awards in Camera, Editing and best short feature, as well 3 finalists & best documentary film at the Welsh Student Film Festival, Ffresh. In 2020 film students won best sound and best postgraduate work in the RTS Cymru awards.
I was the lead tutor for the BFI Academy documentary programme that ran in Bangor in 2014/15 and was nominated for best education project in the National Lottery Awards.
I work as a visting teacher at institutions internationally, including the European Film College, and the State University of New York, where I was appointed Randall Chair in Art and Design in 2015.
Research Interests
I research documentary filmmaking, emerging documentary methods, artist moving image, under represented communities in the creative industries and creative practice pedagogy.
My work as a filmmaker has been broadcast on BBC and Channel 4, and exhibited internationally, including at the British Film Institute, The British Council, The Institute for Contemporary Art London, IDFA Amsterdam, True/ False USA and at the United Nations.
Current practice based projects include a cross media documentary supported by the British Film Institute & Ffilm Cymru Wales and interactive documentary/ art project Two Itinerant Quilters, commissioned by the BBC & UK Arts Council digital initiative The Space. I am currently a fellow with MIT's Open Documentary Lab http://opendoclab.mit.edu/introducing-mit-opendoclab-2020-2021-fellows/
Postgraduate Project Opportunities
I am willing to supervise a PhD
Publications
2021
- PublishedInteractive, Immersive and Digital Documentary Practice in Wales: A Work in Progress
Wright, J., 11 Mar 2021, Documentary in Wales: Cultures and Practices. Sills-Jones, D., Haf, E. & Jones, G. (eds.). Peter Lang
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
2020
- PublishedGwymon
Wright, J. (Other), 2020
Research output: Non-textual form › Artefact - PublishedToday's Documents: Artist Territory Exchange
Wright, J. (Other), 2020
Research output: Non-textual form › Exhibition
2018
- PublishedArtist Territory Exchange Archive
Wright, J. (Other), 2018
Research output: Non-textual form › Exhibition - PublishedDaily Migrations: Without Appeal. Artist Territory Exchange Archive
Wright, J. (Photographer), 2018
Research output: Non-textual form › Exhibition - PublishedTwo Itinerant Quilters Website
Wright, J. (Producer), 2018
Research output: Non-textual form › Digital or Visual Products
2017
- PublishedTwo Itinerant Quilters
Wright, J. & Clayton, L., 2017
Research output: Non-textual form › Exhibition
2016
- PublishedTwo Itinerant Quilters
Wright, J. (Producer), 2016
Research output: Non-textual form › Performance
2015
- PublishedAtomfa (and other stories)
Wright, J., 2015
Research output: Non-textual form › Exhibition - PublishedTwo Itinerant Quilters
Wright, J., 2015
Research output: Non-textual form › Performance - PublishedZero Carbon Britain Artist Residency
Wright, J., 2015
Research output: Other contribution
2014
- PublishedWoodcutters
Wright, J., 2014
Research output: Non-textual form › Artefact - PublishedZero Carbon Britain: Rethinking the Future
Wright, J. (Illustrator), 13 Jul 2014, Zero Carbon Britain: Rethinking the Future. Hooker-Stroud, A. (ed.). Centre for Alternative Technology
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
2013
- PublishedArt and Archive-Imagining the Future: Technologies and attitudes that seemed impossible 50 years ago are now commonplace – will this also be true 50 years from now?
Wright, J., 2013, Clean Slate: The Journal for Sustainable Living, 88.
Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Featured article - PublishedFuture Postcards
Wright, J. (Producer) & Carvalho, M. (Designer), 2013
Research output: Non-textual form › Exhibition - PublishedZero Carbon Britain Blog
Wright, J., 7 Jan 2013
Research output: Non-textual form › Web publication/site
2012
- PublishedBlinc Digital Arts Festival: Starlings
Wright, J. (Producer), 2012
Research output: Non-textual form › Exhibition - PublishedStori Traws
Wright, J. (Other), 16 Nov 2012
Research output: Non-textual form › Digital or Visual Products
Activities
2021
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2020/2021 Fellow Open Documentary Lab
2021 →
Links:
Activity: Visiting an external academic institution (Visiting researcher)
2020
- Clwstwr Ideas Lab
R&D lab to explore, develop and refine new ideas through a User Design process. Supported by AHRC, Cardiff University, Creative Clusters, UKRI, Welsh Government
Dec 2020 →
Links:
Activity: Other (Contributor) - Rotterdam International Film Festival
Rotterdam International Film Festival IFFR Sessions 2020
23 Jan 2020 – 27 Jan 2020
Links:
Activity: Participation in Academic workshop, seminar, course (Speaker) - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Fellowship awarded at the Open Doc Lab, MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2020 →
Links:
Activity: Visiting an external academic institution (Visiting researcher)
2019
- Smithsonian Archive Research Visit
Research undertaken in the textile collection of the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, New York. Funded by Santander Mobility Award
Aug 2019 →
Activity: Other (Contributor) - National Theatre Wales Egin Residency
National Theatre Wales, in partnership with Natural Resources Wales and with support from the National Trust, British Council Wales and Snowdonia National Park, present
EGIN
Climate change is the most urgent issue of our times and will affect every single one of us and the generation to come. Now more than ever we need the arts and culture to help us respond; to provoke and motivate us by offering ideas that challenge our perceptions and influence our behaviours.
Egin aims to kick-start fresh artistic responses to the topic. Taking creative experimentation as its starting point, Egin seeks to inform new practice, imagine possible futures, and inspire sustainable approaches to living.
1 Jul 2019 – 14 Jul 2019
Links:
- https://www.nationaltheatrewales.org/ntw-projects/egin/#about_egin
- https://wales.britishcouncil.org/en/programmes/arts/egin
- Welsh delegation to International Youth Cinema Network Conference in Croatia
The Youth Cinema Network is made up of over 40 youth film festival and media training organisations from all over the world. The delegation is to raise awareness in Wales of the opportunities of working with international partners in terms of collaborative projects, exchange opportunities and international screening of short films from in Wales. The Welsh delegation visit is funded by the British Council
27 May 2019 – 31 May 2019
Activity: Types of External academic engagement - Contribution to the work of national or international committees and working groups (Contributor) - BAFTA Cymru GURU Live
Live streamed masterclasses in partnership with BAFTA Cymru, open to students and public.
Craig Roberts and Alice Lowe in conversation. Welsh actor, writer and director Craig Roberts is best known for his breakout role in Submarine, for which he won the BAFTACymru Award for Best Actor. After his directorial debut Just Jim, Craig recently wrote and directed the feature film Eternal Beauty starring Sally Hawkins and Billie Piper, due out later this year. Craig will be in conversation with one of the film’s stars - the multi-talented actress, writer and director - Alice Lowe (Black Mirror - Bandersnatch, Prevenge), to discuss where they get their inspiration from and the hard work that goes into bringing stories to the screen.
Producing your First Feature Film Learn more about producing your first film from the team whose recent credits include working with Gerard Butler, Eddie Izzard, and Dame Judi Dench. Mad as Birds films’ Ade Shannon, Andy Evans and Celyn Jones will be joined by Kimberley Warner of Ffilm Cymru Wales to chat all things film - from writing & development to finance, production, performance and post-production through to sales and distribution.
Making SEX EDUCATION masterclass. As Netflix series Sex Education gears up for production on a second series we will hear from writer Laurie Nunn and actors Emma Mackey, Ncuti Gatwa and Kedar Williams-stirling. Hosted by BAFTA Cymru winning actress Kimberley Nixon.
20 Mar 2019
Activity: Other (Organiser) - Matthew Hall
Feb 2019
Links:
Activity: Hosting an academic visitor (Host) - Challenges Facing Women Entering the Creative Industries
Women entering the Creative Industries face a wide range of barriers, even in 2019. This seminar will act as a set of provocations. Presentation on film & film education
2019
Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker) - Diversity in European Film Schools
2019 →
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker)
2018
- Immersive Network Summit
Presentation of the development of interactive documentary project, Atomfa
18 Nov 2018
Links:
Activity: Invited talk (Speaker) - Ffilm Cymru Magnifier
Ffilm Cymru Wales supports Welsh or Wales-based writers, directors and producers with development and production funding, industry assistance and mentoring opportunities. They aim to bring film makers and audiences together by encouraging more people to see more films in more venues. They also promote the use of film in education and community regeneration, producing educational resources in conjunction with teachers to aid literacy and general learning.
2 Oct 2018
Links:
Activity: Invited talk (Speaker) - BAFTA Cymru
Judge for factual television category 2018
2018
Links:
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Work on advisory panels for social community and cultural engagement (Contributor) - Cardiff Mini Film Festival
Judge for International Film Festival
2018
Links:
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Work on advisory panels for social community and cultural engagement (Contributor) - i-DOCS
2018 →
Activity: Participation in Academic conference (Speaker) - International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
IDFA Forum is one of the largest and most influential meeting places for documentary filmmakers, producers, commissioning editors, funds, private financiers and other documentary stakeholders internationally. IDFA Forum helps facilitate the financing of important, unique and ground-breaking creative documentaries, whether they are single docs, series or interactive and crossmedia projects
2018
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Festival/Exhibition (Contributor) - The Royal Society of Arts (External organisation)
Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts
https://www.thersa.org/
2018
Links:
Activity: Membership of network (Member) - Validation Panel Member
for BA/FdA Broadcast Media at Coleg Llandrillo
2018
Activity: Types of External academic engagement - Membership of peer review panel or committee (Contributor) - Watch Africa Cymru Film Festival
Post screening discussion of the film When Lambs Become Lions
2018
Links:
Activity: Invited talk (Speaker)
2017
- iFLAB
iFLAB EU/ MEDIA supported 6 month development in Interactive Documentary/ Factual production
Apr 2017 – Jul 2017
Activity: Participation in Academic workshop, seminar, course (Speaker) - Ariadna Fatjo Vilas
Ariadna Fatjo-Vilas is an editor who works both in the UK and internationally. Films she has worked on have been screened in cinemas, TV (including BBC, HBO Asia, Sky Atlantic, Al Jazeera English, PBS, Canal+, ARTE) and art galleries (including Tate Modern and MoMA) and also have received accolades such an Oscar nomination, the Ecumenical and Panorama Audience Award in Berlinale and the Jury Prize at Sheffield and CPH:DOX. Ariadna is a teacher in editing for the Ethnographic & Documentary Film MA, UCL Anthropology.
2017
Activity: Hosting an academic visitor (Host) - BBC/ The Space
Major Commission for Live/ Interactive digital arts project.
2017 – 2018
Links:
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Festival/Exhibition (Contributor) - Coleg Llandrillo
External Moderator for Bangor University degree validation
2017 – 2020
Activity: Visiting an external academic institution (Visiting researcher) - David Evans
David Evans, Artistic Director of the Wales International Documentary Festival, visiting speaker, MA filmmaking.
2017
Links:
Activity: Hosting an academic visitor (Host) - Diversity and Inclusion in Moving Image Education
A report on initial findings from research into students and staff diversity and inclusion in moving image education, presented at the annual general meeting of the National Association of Higher Education in Moving Image.
2017 – 2018
Links:
Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker) - Rotterdam Creative Producers LaB
Rotterdam Creative Producers Lab, CineMart, Netherlands. Supported by Creative Skillset Award
2017 →
Activity: Types of Award - Fellowship awarded competitively (Contributor) - Wales Arts International GRANT Award
Wales Arts International Award to attend The Artist Residency in Motherhood, Pittsburgh,
and the Smithsonian Design Museum Archives, New York USA
2017 →
Activity: Types of Award - Fellowship awarded competitively (Contributor) - Wales International Documentary Festival
Selection Jury Member for International Film Festival
2017 – 2018
Links:
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Work on advisory panels for social community and cultural engagement (Contributor)
2015
- Invited participant at Open Engagement
16 Apr 2015 – 19 Apr 2015
Links:
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Public lecture/debate/seminar (Contributor) - Atomfa and Other Stories
Gallery Show/ Installation
1 Apr 2015 – 30 Apr 2015
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Festival/Exhibition (Organiser) - European Audio Visual Entrepreuers
A year long programme focused on three intensive weeks featuring professional development through working on the development of fiction and documentary projects.
15 Jan 2015 – Dec 2015
Activity: Participation in Academic workshop, seminar, course (Participant)
2014
- Arts Council of Wales/ Culture Shift
12 Nov 2014
Activity: Participation in Academic workshop, seminar, course (Invited speaker) - Public Talk
Public Talk about the Zero Carbon Britain Artist Residency
Nov 2014
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Public lecture/debate/seminar (Interviewee) - Future Postcards
Curated public exhibition and lecture series
1 Aug 2014 – 30 Aug 2014
Links:
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Festival/Exhibition (Organiser) - Future Postcards
Exhibiting Artist
1 Aug 2014 – 30 Aug 2014
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Festival/Exhibition (Contributor) - Culture Shift/ Report on Sustainability in the Arts in Wales
Aug 2014 →
Links:
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Work on advisory panels for social community and cultural engagement (Contributor) - Forward Looking
Art Exhibition and Schools Outreach project
15 Mar 2014 – 3 May 2014
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Festival/Exhibition (Contributor) - Film Education Network Member
Film education network (FEN) for Wales is to support and celebrate the practice and professional development of media education practitioners and film professionals working in Wales.
1 Jan 2014 →
Activity: Types of Business and Community - Membership of public/government advisory/policy group or panel (Member) - John Maclean
Visiting Filmmaker talk by John Maclean. Maclean won a Best Short Film BAFTA award in 2012 for Pitch Black Heist, which starred Michael Fassbender. His first feature film was the 2015 western-drama Slow West, for which he won the "World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic" at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival
2014
Activity: Hosting an academic visitor (Host)
2013
- Arts Council of Wales Artist in Residence
2 Oct 2013 →
Activity: Types of External academic engagement - Research and Teaching at External Organisation (Contributor) - BFI Film Academy Organiser and Lecturer
BFI Film Academy documentary film training program for 16-19 year olds
Jun 2013 – Jun 2015
Links:
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Work on advisory panels for social community and cultural engagement (Organiser) - Article for Clean Slate Magazine
Article about the role of Archive in the Zero Carbon Britain residency
May 2013
Links:
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Media article or participation (Contributor) - BFI Film Academy Network
2 Jan 2013 →
Activity: Types of External academic engagement - Contribution to the work of national or international committees and working groups (Member) - School representative for NAHEMI
NAHEMI acts as a forum for debate on all matters pertaining to the teaching of practice in the Moving Image in Higher Education including the theory and history underpinning these practices.
1 Jan 2013 →
Links:
Activity: Types of External academic engagement - Contribution to the work of national or international committees and working groups (Member)
2012
- Public Talk: Stori Traws
Stori Traws is about the social as well as the technological impact of one of the largest industrial developments seen in North Wales during the last 50 years. It is an impressive story of innovation and engineering on a grand scale encompassing the three main phases of Trawsfynydd Power Station’s lifetime: construction, power production and decommissioning. Now, as work on site is approaching its final stages, an imaginative programme is underway as part of the Trawsfynydd Heritage Strategy to safeguard this unique aspect of our industrial and social history by preserving documents, photographs, and the taped memories of former workers etc. for the future. Nuclear power production though is only one part of the story of electricity generation in the area. Our timeline starts with the production and use of electric power in local quarries in the Victorian period, early hydro-electric schemes, establishing local supply networks, the National Grid, the advent of nuclear power, pump storage schemes and the recent revival in interest in micro-generation and concludes with a look to what the future might hold. Interwoven with this story of technological revolution is the social and economic impact of such a large development as Trawsfynydd power station and the domestic transformation which followed the coming of power to people’s homes.
16 Nov 2012
Links:
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Public lecture/debate/seminar (Speaker) - Exhibiting Artsist
17 Oct 2012 – 31 Oct 2012
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Festival/Exhibition (Contributor) - Artist in Residence
2 Oct 2012 – 1 Jun 2014
Activity: Types of Business and Community - Membership of public/government advisory/policy group or panel (Contributor) - Visiting Artist
15 Aug 2012 – Sep 2012
Activity: Types of External academic engagement - Research and Teaching at External Organisation (Speaker) - Trawsfynydd Power Station Heritage Days
Set up, organised and documented interviews and material collected at 2 day long events held at Trawsfynydd Nuclear Power station with present and former workers from the site.
2012 →
Activity: Types of Public engagement and outreach - Festival/Exhibition (Organiser)