Sophie Jackson

Sophie is Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for ARU's BA (Hons) Film Production degree. She has over 15 years' experience as a filmmaker, including ten as an independent producer working in the Australian film and television industry.

[email protected]

Background

Sophie trained in producing at Australia’s national film school, AFTRS. She has directed and produced across a range of styles and genres, but has a strong interest in the diversity offered by the short film format. Her short films and television documentaries have received almost 20 festival and industry nominations and screenings internationally. Awards include a Silver Hugo (Chicago Film Festival), a Silver Spire (Golden Gate Awards), and two AFI (Australian Film Institute) Awards. Her commissioned programs have screened on Australian national television and through cable networks in the UK and Europe.

Since emigrating to the UK, Sophie has expanded her skills and knowledge based through specialised training in script editing and completing an MA in Film Theory. In addition to teaching and working with students on the creation of their short films, Sophie continues to develop projects and consults as a script editor. In 2019 she completed Could Try Harder, an interactive, multi-strand documentary, and the film she co-produced with colleague Shreepali Patel, The Golden Window, was nominated for an UKRI AHRC Research In Film Award. Between 2016 and 2018, she produced the short film Seven Pleats and, with colleague Cathy Elliott, was supervising producer on 3 other short films all commissioned for the Channel 4 online strand Random Acts/First Acts.

Research interests

• The representation of memory in cinema in both documentary and fiction.
• Storytelling - across genres and alternate or immersive strategies and processes.

Qualifications

• MA Film Theory, Anglia Ruskin University
• Diploma in Script Development, National Film and Television School (UK)
• BA (Producing), Australian Film Television and Radio School
• BA (Visual Arts), College of Fine Art, University of NSW

Recent presentations and conferences

Jackson, S., 2014. Memory Affect: Past and Present in Ross McElwee’s Photographic Memory (2011) and Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life (2011). Avanca/Cinema International Conference Proceedings.

Forshore, J. and Jackson, S., 2014. What Next - Cambridge Film Conference, (co-convenors) Anglia Ruskin University.

Jackson, S., 2013. Place, Space & Time: the Affective Memory Captured in Terrence Malick’s 'Tree of Life”'paper presented at Cinematic Urban Geographies, Centre For Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities – Cambridge University.

Patel, S. and Jackson, S., 2013. The Golden Window, conference screening This Is My Body, Centre For Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities and Addenbrooke's NHS Trust, Cambridge University.

Patel, S. and Jackson, S., 2013. The Golden Window, Cambridge Festival Of Ideas, screening and talk, Arts Picturehouse.