The Surgeons

Hannah Patterson

Hannah Patterson is producer of Shelter in Place, the winner of Britdoc 08′s Short Film Pitch and nominee of doc/fest’s Green Award. She writes extensively on film and documentary practice for outlets including DOX, Sight & Sound, The Guardian,Time Out Guides and The International Film Guide, and regularly undertakes Q&As and panel discussions with film and documentary makers. She is editor of, and contributor to, The Cinema of Terrence Malick: Poetic Visions of America, Contemporary North American Film Directors andContemporary British and Irish Film Directors, and commissioning editor of Kamera Books and Creative Essentials.

Ben Blaine

Ben Blaine makes films with his brother Chris.  Prolific and critically-acclaimed, their work includes the award-winning short comedy ‘Hallo Panda’, made with Film4 and the UKFC through their Cinema Extreme scheme and the shorter, but equally lovely films, ‘Free Speech’ and ‘Death Of The Revolution’.

Here’s their website…

Philip Ilson

Philip founded The Halloween Society short film club in 1994, continuing until 2003 when he and Kate Taylor organised the first Halloween Short Film Festival at the ICA, which became the London Short Film Festival in January 2008. Philip also co-founded the Volcano Independent Film Festival in 1996, Kentra multi-media club event in 1998, and the British Council’s Sensurround multi-media club extravaganza.

He was Short Film Programmer at the Curzon Soho in 2005 and since 2006 he has been a Short Film Programmer at the BFI London Film Festival. From January 2008, he has also programmed the East End Film Festival and in April of that year became the founding programmer of Branchage Jersey International Film Festival.  If you make short films, at some point they will pass before the eyes of Philip Ilson.

James Mullighan

Not strictly a surgeon himself… James Mullighan is the host, compere, MC, and general bon vivant of the Branchage Film Surgeries.

As Creative Director of Shooting People, James is responsible for the site’s day-to-day running, business development and future expansion. He is a film events producer (RESFEST), Journalist (Rolling Stone, GQ) and music industry executive (Sony Classical, Columbia). Whilst working for Shooting People, James sits as a juror for the Bablegum Online Film Festival, DepicT! Short Film Awards and Friends of the Earth’s Green Film Competition, and sits on the Advisory Board of Sheffield Doc/Fest.