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Studying at Goldsmiths, University of London Skillset Media Academy

Studying at Goldsmiths, University of London Skillset Media Academy

Marie Bryant won two prestigious awards at Goldsmiths, University of London Skillset Media Academy.

Marie Bryant won two prestigious awards while doing her MA in screen documentary at Goldsmiths, University of London Skillset Media Academy.

Winning the best postgraduate film at the Royal Television Society awards and best short documentary at the London Independent Film Festival last year (2009) bought her to the attention of some big industry players.

“The RTS awards are sponsored by the BBC and ITV so there’s a lot of publicity around the films, so it boosted my confidence,” says the 37-year-old.

The winning film, Life on the Grave Side, was filmed at Abney Park cemetery in Stoke Newington, north London, and focuses on the characters that hang out there. “I started hanging out there with a camera,” she says. “It’s a portrait of a place. It documents the conflict between drinkers and relatives.”

Marie had previously studied anthropology and was about to complete her masters when she decided she would rather film than write.

She decided to go to Goldsmiths because it was a one-year course: “It was basically just to get a full understanding of what’s involved in making a film and give me the confidence,” she says. She found it a “safe” environment to learn in, with invaluable access to people who have worked in the industry

You have the lecturers who have really good contacts in the industry

Since graduation one has kept in touch and asked Marie to pitch ideas to him, another is “still very willing to talk through ideas”: “So I’ll be talking to them about my (current) film. Those contacts are invaluable.”

Now Marie is making her own character driven documentaries and the course has left her with the confidence to go and ask people for money: “I have lots of ideas. I’m filming now a bit of an experiment. Before I might have filmed this but I wouldn’t have had the confidence to go to production companies to ask for money.”

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Tags: Film, Pick the Tick, Skillset Media Academies, Television, Women in Media

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