Awards
Audience Favorite Eventive Balloting | Workers Unite Virtual Film Festival
Official Selections
2020 Workers Unite Virtual Film Festival
2020 Global Indie Film Festival
Synospis - Nightshfit Spitalfields is a 10-minute documentary about Ali, a Bulgarian-Turkish porter at the night market, who works six nights a week, often on 15-hour shift, loading and transporting perishable goods. These nightshifts are incredibly demanding, mentally, emotionally and physically. Many workers have families, but it’s almost impossible to have a proper family life when on graveyard shift duty, six nights per week. They can’t take proper part in society, they can’t organise to improve their conditions – they are just exhausted and worn down. These night workers are an invisible group of people who keep the city running with their labour. Those of us who sleep at night have no idea that they even exist, but without them, the supermarket shelves would be empty in the morning. Crucially, after the end of the Brexit transition period, these workers won’t be eligible to come here from the EU under freedom of movement. And if the Government introduces the proposed work-based immigration system – requiring workers to either meet a salary threshold of at least £25,600 or a points threshold based on qualifications, English language ability and age, among other things – they won’t be able to come here at all. That’s bad for them and likely even worse for London, which relies heavily on their labour to function as an urban metropolis.
This short documentary was filmed in 2015 during the ethnographic study entitled "Invisible Migrants: Glocturnal cities' "other workers" in the post-circadian capitalist era", which was part of the doctoral thesis defended at the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Central EuropeanUniversity (Budapest Campus).
'Sleepless Bat' (2016) is the trailer for Nightshift Spitalfields. IT was made with support from the CEU Mirabaud Media Lab and Verzio DocLab.
Nocturnal Lives (2015) focuses on three nightworkers and the researcher-turned-filmmaker. This short film was shot at the New Spitalfields market, London, and was made as part of an doctoral fieldwork in anthropology. The fieldwork was funded by the Marie Skłodowska Curie research training programme funded by the 7th Framework Programme under Grant Agreement n. 316796.
Invisible Lives: Romanian Night Workers in London (2013) was co-produced with filmmaker Tim Marrinan (maker of Burden, 2017). Our short film won the Round Table Project organised by Romanian Cultural Centre - Ratiu Family Foundation, London.
Show reel compiled for the pledge to finish production of a short film on night work Nightshift Spitalfields (2020).
A short film about integration of migrants in the UK. This film was part of Migrant Voice initiative 'Feel at home'.
A short film about Aikido. Filmed in 2016 at Ten Chi Jin Dojo, Budapest, Hungary.
Filmed on iPhone 4S. Showing Danube river, Budapest segment. (2016)