Independent Cinema Office
3rd Floor
Kenilworth House
79–80 Margaret Street
London W1W 8TA

T. 020 7636 7120
F. 020 7636 7121
E.info@independent
cinemaoffice.org.uk

Registered in England and Wales
Company number: 5369193
ICO is a registered charity
Charity no: 1109053

Programming Specialised and Archive Film: Speaker biographies

More speaker biographies will be added over the next few weeks.

Kate Gerova, Head of Distribution, Soda Pictures

Kate Gerova is Head of Distribution at Soda Pictures. Following her BA in Cultural Studies from the Norwich School of Art & Design, she worked in corporate PR before becoming involved in Film Marketing and Distribution specialising in the promotion of award winning short films.

Sarah Perks, Engagement Director, Cornerhouse

Sarah Perks is Engagement Director at Cornerhouse, Manchester's international centre for contemporary visual arts and cinema. She is part of the senior management team and responsible for education, marketing, audience development and box office.
Previously Education Director, Sarah manages the education team that includes the innovative and award winning programmes LiveWire (for young people aged 14 - 18 years) and Projector (a year round programme for schools and colleges). Sarah has also been Festival Director of exposures, the UK's leading student film festival for the last 6 years. In 2007, Sarah also co-programmed Made in Hong Kong - a season of films and events exploring the tenth anniversary of the handover and is working toward a nationwide tour of Hong Kong Women Filmmakers next year.
Sarah is a director of Northern Film Network and a freelance lecturer and writer specialising in Asian cinema. Sarah has also recently completely a Common Purpose Matrix Leadership course and led a Cultural Leadership Programme for MAV venues - a research project on personalisation, audiences and organisational culture.

Sue Porter, Film Development Officer and Coordinator of Cinema Rural Touring in East Midlands

Sue Porter is a Film Development and Education Officer, who currently works part time for Phoenix in Leicester, programming film events and education packages for schools and the wider community. Sue has experience of programming and working with archive film in a number of contexts, having worked with the Media Archive for Central England (MACE), programming and delivering packages of regional archive films that have successfully toured the East Midlands. Sue also helps with research and programming for the Silent British Film Festival at Broadway in Nottingham, now in its 11th year, and is currently running a series of reminiscence workshops across the East Midlands using archive films from the Imperial War Museum and the British Film Institute's National Film and Television Archive (NFTVA) collections. Sue also teaches Film Studies at De Montfort University in Leicester.

Patrick Russell, Senior Curator (Non-Fiction), BFI National Archive

Patrick has been in this post since 2000. He has previously worked at East Anglian Film Archive and BBC Broadcast Archives. He is author of the book '100 British Documentaries' and co-editor of the book 'The Lost World of Mitchell and Kenyon'. His cinema programming has included major retrospectives of the documentary directors John Krish and Michael Grigsby, and the 2007 season 'Documentary Centenaries'.

David Sin, Director (maternity cover), Independent Cinema Office

David is currently Director (maternity cover) at the ICO. He was previously, Head of Content Development at the British Film Institute, with responsibility for films released into cinemas, on DVD and online. Before that he was Director of Cinema at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA). David Sin has nearly 20 years experience in all aspects of film exhibition and distribution, accomplished in developing new projects, and devising and implementing cultural and business strategies for existing film industry organisations. David has a significant track record of achievement and innovation as a programmer, distributor and independent consultant.

Matthew Smith, Head of Sales, Lions Gate

Matt Smith studied Maths & Education at the University of York, and started in the film industry at EDI in May 1994 as Executive Assistant. After a year he went on to work for PolyGram in the Sales Department where he stayed for the next four years. Just before PolyGram's demise he moved to Pathé as Sales Manager in 1999, staying for five years. After a brief time at Tartan as Head of Sales, he moved to fulfill a similar position at Lions Gate in September 2005, overseeing all aspects of theatrical distribution.