Who we are
You know when you randomly meet someone hungover on a beach, or on a rainy day in a carpark and somehow you become your best friend? That’s kind of how we all met. Connection, synchronicity and that insatiable buzz of finding someone who sees the world like you do…
Benjamin Cook
I am a film-maker, teacher and soundtrack writer. Although part of me still wants to make sci-fi and horror films that inspired me in my youth, documentary has become my love due to among other things its impact, its direct investigation of the world and the strange places and wonderful people it has led me to.
My work has covered mental illness, social housing, food security, the environment, drone warfare and women refugees. My latest feature documentary ATUEL (a collaboration with Pierre Heisten) was granted Declaration of Social Interest status by the Argentine government, and its award winning spin-off game exhibited at Cannes.
Inevitably working with such a wide range of people and subjects has led me to sharing what I have learnt, Hopefully enabling people to do it themselves, tell their own stories and share their own ideas. I teach film-making and designs creative curriculums for universities and secondary education facilities across the UK as well as leading ATLA’s creative filmmaking community The Film Liberation Project.
Pierre Heistein
Pierre is an economist and former strategy consultant advising Fortune 500 companies. Co-founder of the 12.01 Project he now assists academic institutions, charities, scientists, and conservationists with strategy, production and digital media.
In April 2024 Pierre facilitated the worlds largest film screening, projecting the environmental documentary ATUEL onto the Grand Valle dam in Argentina and concurrently streaming it around the world. more….
Ellie House
I have a long held fascination with geography and how communities and individuals are impacted by their surroundings. After years as a project manager on capital regeneration programmes - trying to solve the problem of poverty with granite-finish paving slabs and grass amphitheatres, I realised it wasn’t really working, and the frustration expressed to me by community members was true; no one was really listening. So I took my spreadsheets and financial forecasts and the very humbling experience of realising I’d been part of the problem for a long time and moved to the third sector.
Volunteering and working beside people experiencing homelessness, addiction, exploitation and bread-line poverty reminded me why I’d been invested in working in the community in the first place. I was reminded of the joy of family gatherings at my Greek grandma’s house and eating together which is something most people living in isolation and poverty don’t get to experience.
In 2019 I led the establishment of Feeding Coventry, one of the UKs first and most successful food resilience charities and refocused on making life more meaningful from the inside out.
In 2021 I became one of Coventry’s 15 Cultural Leaders through our City of Culture year, and threw myself into creating the right conditions within the community for people to thrive; opportunities to be creative, to tell stories, to eat together and hopefully feel a little bit more listened to and supported. Giving people a sense of personal efficacy, whilst hopefully making life a little bit easier.
Alastair Smith
I’ve always loved learning, for its own interest but mainly for application to make things “better”, often in the sense of “fairer”. Through the privilege of education, at undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD levels, I’ve emerged as a transdisciplinary, and now public academic, deeply invested in learning with others through university and community teaching.
I’ve worked as a sustainability consultant, been trusted as a Director in the international Fair Trade movement, represented colleagues as a Trade Unionist, and contributed educational advice to the European Guild of Universities.
Craft and creation have always been close to my heart, my lurcher shows me our world from a different perspective daily, and my wife gives me my highest purpose: to live slow, not survive frantically.
Work with us
There’s a range of different ways you can work with us, if you have an idea or a project you’re excited about then there’s a good chance we’ll be excited to hear from you too. Our collaborations always start with a conversation.