Real examples of my work across writing, editing, film, design and campaign media — with context on the problem, the process, and the result.
Unknown Horizons:
Slava Ukraini (2025)
Award-winning grassroots documentary into the Russia/Ukraine War.
Starring:
Aubrey Mathis
Andy Axon
Denys Romochuskyy
Spyke O'Hanlin
Follow the eye-opening and world changing journey of Spyke O'Hanlin, a first time, disabled traveller from the UK who ultimately finds himself on a humanitarian mission delivering aid into war-torn Ukraine in April, 2022. Teaming up with American English teacher and resident of Slovakia, Aubrey Mathis, together they journey into Ukraine to deliver their Skoda full of food to Andy and Denys, two members of a larger, independent relief effort operating solely in Ukraine. During their mission they uncover and investigate harrowing truths about corrupt foreign aid organisations, discover dark secrets about political parties and corrupt officials and experience the realities of war and Russian aggression.
Director’s Statement —
Unknown Horizons
Unknown Horizons was never meant to exist.
The project began spontaneously during my first ever trip outside the United Kingdom — a journey to Bratislava, where I was originally filming a travel documentary. There was no structured narrative plan, no shot list, no pre-written arc. I simply filmed everything I could. Streets. Conversations. Light. Movement. Silence. I documented the experience instinctively, without knowing what the story would be.
It was only in post-production that the real challenge emerged: how do you carve meaning from chaos?
The footage was a mosaic of moments — disconnected on the surface, yet emotionally charged beneath it. The process became less about assembling clips and more about discovering a narrative hidden within them. Unknown Horizons is the result of that excavation. It is proof that story does not always begin with structure — sometimes it reveals itself through patience, perspective, and trust in the edit.
This film represents my ability to transform raw, unplanned material into a cohesive, emotionally resonant piece of cinema — one that went on to receive international recognition. It stands as a reminder that powerful storytelling is not about perfect conditions; it’s about seeing the shape of something before anyone else does.
Sometimes the horizon is unknown because it hasn’t been written yet.
A Peace Of Europe (2020)
Starring:
Thom Jackson-Wood
Madeleina Kay
Featuring:
Dr. Mike Galsworthy
Steven Bray
Graham Hughes
Drew Galdron
Jane Morrice
Brian Maguire
Linda Ervine
Conor McArdle
The Good Friday Agreement, a peace process that brought to an end forty years of violence and strife in a civil war known as the Troubles, was signed on the 10th April 1998, in Belfast, Ireland. Twenty years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, Madeleina Kay, known as the ‘EU Supergirl’ and Indie Filmmaker, Thom Jackson-Wood, explore how the European Union has supported the Northern Irish Peace Process whilst also campaigning against the biggest threat to it, Brexit.
Campaigning on the iconic, Bollocks To Brexit Bus, Madeleina and Thom journey from Brussels to Belfast with fellow activists, Dr. Mike Galsworthy, Steven Bray, Graham Hughes and Drew Galdron, to speak to experts, Jane Morrice, Brian Maguire, Linda Ervine and Conor McArdle about the Good Friday Agreement and the devastating effects Brexit will have on it. A film by Filmmaker-Activists Thom Jackson-Wood and Spyke O’Hanlin, this is the first documentary in history to look at the role the European Union has played in the Northern Irish Peace Process.
Assistant Director / Story Editor Statement —
A Peace of Europe
A Peace of Europe
I was originally brought onto A Peace of Europe as an editor.
What followed was a four-year collaboration with director Thom Jackson-Wood that transformed both the film and my role within it.
Between 2016 and 2019, the political landscape shifted dramatically. From the Brexit referendum to the mounting concerns surrounding the Good Friday Agreement, the story we were telling refused to stand still. The documentary had to evolve alongside real-world events. Structural revisions, tonal recalibrations, and narrative rethinking became part of the process.
Over the course of post-production, I stepped into the roles of Story Editor and later Assistant Director. The edit suite became more than a space of assembly — it became a space of interpretation. We were not simply cutting footage; we were responding to history as it unfolded.
A Peace of Europe went on to make history as the first film to comprehensively demonstrate the European Union’s involvement in the Good Friday Agreement — illuminating an often-overlooked dimension of the peace process and its delicate relationship with Brexit. That responsibility required precision, balance, and clarity in a deeply polarised political climate.
The title itself — A Peace of Europe — emerged from that process: a reflection on both the fragility of peace and the shared structures that helped sustain it.
The film ultimately earned over forty international awards, but its greatest achievement lies in its resilience. It survived rewrites, restructures, and the volatility of a nation redefining itself.
For me, this project represents long-form collaboration at its most demanding and most rewarding — shaping a coherent, impactful narrative while the ground beneath it continued to move.
The Black Sandz Saga
Overview
Black Sandz is an original post-apocalyptic saga set in a fortified harbour city built upon the ruins of the old world. Beneath ultraviolet lights and guarded walls, humanity clings to survival while something ancient and monstrous stirs beyond the sands.
The series explores power, belief, corruption, loyalty, family, and the cost of defending civilisation when the world itself has changed.
Now spanning multiple self-published novels and expanding into motion comic form, Black Sandz is a long-form intellectual property designed for cross-media storytelling.
Format: Novel Series | Motion Comic Adaptation
Books Published:
• Black Sandz: The Darkest Night
• Black Sandz: Siege and Desist
Portfolio Statement
Black Sandz –
Motion Comic Adaptation
The Black Sandz Motion Comic began as an adaptation of my novel, but it quickly became something more — a full-spectrum test of what can be built with limited resources and relentless commitment.
Over the better part of a year, I developed the project independently. Every visual asset was created individually. Every scene was structured, edited, paced, and refined without studio infrastructure or external funding. The process demanded not only storytelling ability, but production design, voice performance, sound direction, editing discipline, and brand cohesion.
This project demonstrates my ability to:
Translate long-form narrative into cinematic structure
Create cohesive visual worlds from scratch
Edit for atmosphere, rhythm, and emotional impact
Perform and direct voice work
Manage scope and deliver ambitious projects independently
Build transmedia IP with consistency across formats
It also reflects something more personal: dedication. The willingness to commit to a project long after the novelty fades. To finish what I start. To refine rather than abandon.
The motion comic stands as proof that meaningful media does not require large budgets — it requires clarity of vision, adaptability, and follow-through.
As both an artist and a consultant, this piece represents how I approach every project: resourceful, strategic, and uncompromising in execution.
What It Teaches
Breaking Frames is not theory-heavy gatekeeping.
It is practical.
It walks you through:
Finding your voice and turning difference into strength.
Starting with the tools you already have.
Building a creative network from scratch.
Running micro-projects to build momentum.
Safeguarding, professionalism, and trust.
Turning collaboration into community.
Avoiding burnout and creative apathy.
Understanding that consistency beats talent when talent stops showing up.
It treats art not as a hobby — but as a practice.
Not as a luxury — but as survival.
The Philosophy Behind It
Apathy is the death of creativity.
The world is loud. Distracting. Divisive.
Breaking Frames is about choosing engagement over apathy.
Community over isolation.
Creation over consumption.
It’s about understanding that movements don’t start with institutions — they start with people who decide to act.
Art evolves when we experiment.
Communities grow when we show up.
Creativity thrives when we refuse to disengage.
Breaking Frames is a reminder that you don’t need permission to build something meaningful.
You just need to start.
Break Frames
Into the Arts. Into Yourself. Into Action.
Breaking Frames is more than a book.
It’s a guide, a movement, and an open door into the arts for people who were never handed a key.
I created Breaking Frames because for years I saw the same pattern:
Talented people with powerful stories, convinced they weren’t “qualified” to create. People who thought art belonged to those with money, degrees, connections, or permission.
It doesn’t.
Art belongs to the people. It always has.
Breaking Frames exists to dismantle the myth that creativity is reserved for the elite. It is a practical, grounded, no-excuses guide to entering the arts — whether that’s writing, filmmaking, music, dance, theatre, photography, design, or something entirely your own.
The Bigger Picture
This isn’t just about entering “the industry.”
It’s about:
Building local creative ecosystems.
Encouraging collaboration over competition.
Making the arts accessible.
Creating safer, inclusive creative spaces.
Empowering people to tell their own stories instead of waiting for validation.
Breaking Frames is about reclaiming creativity from elitism.
And putting it back in the hands of the people.
If you’ve ever thought:
“I could do that… if only I knew how.”
This is your how.
Why I Created It
For most of my life, I’ve been building things from nothing.
Clubs. Films. Books. Community projects. Movements.
Not because I had backing.
Not because I had investors.
But because I refused to accept that creativity required permission.
Breaking Frames was born from years of personal notes, lessons learned the hard way, quotes collected from films and strangers alike, conversations in pubs, travels across countries, and countless collaborations with artists at every level.
It’s everything I wish someone had handed me when I started.
It’s the playbook for people who don’t come from privilege — but come with fire.