Holly Aylett

Qualifications

BA (Hons) Literature (Cambridge University)
MA (Cambridge University)
Certificate of Education (London Metropolitan University)
Certificate in Screenwriting (Birkbeck University)
TEFL Certificate (Bell School of Languages, Cambridge)
Award-winning documentary filmmaker

Role

Senior Lecturer, Film Studies, HALE(
Senior Lecturer, MA in Creative and Cultural Industries. HALE (
Senior Research Fellow, Global Policy Institute (

Before returning to academia Holly worked as an independent filmmaker. Throughout her career she has played an active role in tracking cultural policy for the audiovisual sector. She was a founder member of Broadside, the first all-women company to produce flagship current affairs, (Channel 4); founding director and managing editor of Vertigo Magazine, UK’s leading independent quarterly (1993-2010) (www.vertigomagazine.co.uk); and in she 2003 launched The Independent Film Parliament, a forum for the independent sector to feedback through reports and delegations to government and industry institutions (www.filmparliament.org.uk)

She is a member of the UK National Commission of UNESCO (www.unesco.org.uk) and Director of the UK Coalition for Cultural Diversity, a cross-arts organisation set up to support the implementation of UNESCO’s Convention for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, 2005, http://ukccd.wordpress.com/ which puts cultural policy at the centre of agendas for development. The UKCCD has run a series of events and seminars with London Metropolitan’s Global Policy Institute and other government, university and industry partners, on the implementation of the Convention.

At London Metropolitan University, Holly has devised and taught undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the areas of film studies and cultural policy. In 2003 she helped design the university’s DigiLab, a teaching facility providing for the Humanities Faculty and Film Studies’ practice-theory orientation.

Her current research and consultancy is in international policy associated with the UNESCO Convention (2005), and the role of audiovisual industries in government strategies for development.

Her film credits include Nicaraguan Journey (Channel 4, 1^st Prize Philadelphia Peace Festival, 1985) Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Tales Beyond Solitude (South Bank Show and Best Documentary, Havana Film Festival, 1989); Footnote in History - Christa Wolf and the East German Writers (1991 South Bank Show); Adventures with Javier Mariscal (1992 Arena, BBC); and Quicksands (1994) a feature co-production with France’s CNC.