Profile of Warnborough mentor, Kristiene Clarke.
Kristiene Clarke is an accomplished film and television director with a strong background and training in all aspects of film production. She has over 70 flagship credits having worked for the BAFTA award winning BBC arts series ARENA, Channel 4, ITV, Channel Five and many overseas broadcasters. Kristiene has also created films for non-governmental organisations, charities, third sector institutions and international clients such as the United Nations, Ogilvy Mather , International Planned Parenthood Federation and the World Health Organisation. Her films have won awards at many international film festivals and she has the accolade of three major international retrospectives, and work screened at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, the British Film Institute, Smithsonian Museum, Directors Guild of America, the Jerusalem Cinematheque, Goethe Institute and the Australian Film Institute. Kristiene has held academic positions at the University of Kent and been a visiting lecturer at several other UK universities: the University of Manchester, London School of Economics, Queen Mary and Royal Holloway, University of London and she has also mentored individuals and groups at various vocational training institutions.
In addition to the production and exhibition of her films and teaching responsibilities further actions include creative workshops, trainings, master-classes, seminars, lectures, forums, reports, publications, websites and consultancies. Other experience includes one-to- one mentoring and delivering master-classes in locations as diverse as prisons, young peoples detention facilities , corporate boardrooms, summer camps, favelas in Brazil and presentations at film festivals, academic conferences and other cultural forums throughout the world.
Kristiene has a strong commitment to the knowledge transfer and the teaching of creative practice. She feels contemporary film and television education addresses fundamental questions about the possibilities and limitations of the medium of film and about the nature of representation, technology, aesthetics, subjectivity, gender, social justice, human rights and creativity.
Because filmmaking is grounded in understanding human experiences and interactions that yield outcomes which can be individually liberating, intellectually and culturally enlightening Kristiene’s approach to teaching therefore is to provide strong and rigorous training in all aspects of film theory, film production (narrative, experimental and factual) blending this with the critical analysis of the film, television and media industries challenge us to comprehend how the screen arts inform our understanding of culture and society, and how cultural knowledge and experience abide in moving images. Also the ways in which technologies of seeing are influenced by various social, economic, aesthetic and political concerns emphasising that far from simply being the static container of culture, film , television and media needs to be studied in its historical social, cultural and political complexity and context.
Kristiene believes it is from a core of creative practice and critical investigation other forms of inquiry can emerge, such as philosophical analysis, immersive and reflexive study, historical and cultural commentary, all of which add to the educational, learning and academic experience.
Through the process of making film, studying film and interpreting film, Kristiene hopes to evoke in her students an understanding of the human condition, and as new ideas are presented that help learners see in new ways so that they can be encouraged through engagement to experience themselves as passionate producers and creators rather than just as passive consumers, and as empowered rather than disempowered scholars, artists and thinkers.
Kristiene welcomes enquiries from students interested in any of the above creative disciplines or from those who wish to explore the theoretical aspects of film, television or the wider media industries.
When not making films, talking about film or teaching film, Kristiene’s interests are disability issues, and enjoying time with her dog, Harry, and cat, Burt. She also likes to spend time ‘messing around on boats’.
