Sean McAllister

After leaving school at 16 Sean McAllister worked in a series of lowpaid lowskilled factory jobs in his hometown of Hull before finding a camera and filming his way into the National Film and Television School NFTS graduating in 1996 Since then he has made films for both the BBC and Channel 4 working in the UK and internationally His candid frank films depict with extraordinary intimacy the lives of ordinary people who are struggling to survive but who are survivors intelligent and resourceful people caughtup in a world of political turmoil and personal conflict In 2005 his remarkable film The Liberace Of Baghdad about Iraqi pianist Samir Peter won the Special Jury Prize World Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival Sean is much more than a dispassionate flyonthewall observer of other peoples lives there is a flyinthesoup Vérité approach to his filmmaking he becomes involved he intervenes he asks the questions which often provoke his subjects and himself into insights thoughts and realisations which they never knew they had From his early films Working For The Enemy 1997 and The Minders 1998 Sundance Jury Prizewinning The Liberace Of Baghdad 2004 and Japan A Story Of Love And Hate 2008 to his more recent successes The Reluctant Revolutionary Sheffield Jury Prize winning BAFTA nominated A Syrian Love Story 2015 and now A Northern Soul 2018 Seans work continues to inspire to surprise and to fascinate audiences In 2017 Sean was director of the opening ceremony of the Hull City of Culture setting the year off with record audiences 15 times the citys population attended the opening week events