A collective of award winning London based independent filmmakers.

About Native Voice


Native Voice has worked for leading broadcasters such as the BBC, Channel 4 UK, ARTE, Al-Jazeera, SBS Australia, PBS America as well as Amnesty International, the UNHCR and Human Rights Watch.



We are a collective of independent filmmakers, all with a variety of expertise in languages and production skills besides pure cutting edge filmmaking talent!

Established in London in 1998, we have made films in many different countries - from Africa to the Middle East and Latin America. Our diverse output of films varies from quality broadcast and independent documentaries to NGO work and conflict reportage for the worlds leading news organizations. Native Voice filmmakers have been nominated for and won several international awards.

At Native Voice, we work both as freelancers and with and for each other - come rain, wind or shine - and we welcome passionate and distinct voices for collaborations in front of, and behind the camera.

Whether documentary, experimenta, drama or news, our films should have storytelling at their core and challenge our audience's view on the world around them. We aspire to make films that reveal a common and essential humanity in our subjects - be they immigrants smuggling themselves into the USA, a Guarani Indian in the rainforest of Argentina or a rebel soldier fighting in the deserts of Western Sudan. Even in this age of media saturation, there has never been a greater need for brave, creative and sincere films that can provoke us all in thought and action.

Phil Cox
Director Native Voice



The Natives

Phil Cox
Director
Phil produced and directed his first films in Scotland whilst based at the Edinburgh Film and Video Centre, also completing an honours degree in languages and literature at the University of Edinburgh. With a primary interest in documentary he created Native Voice Films with his brother in 1998. For the last 8 years he has worked both as a director and producer of award winning broadcast and Indy documentaries as well as a freelance news cameraman. Phil also teaches and lectures for DFG (www.dfgdocs.com). He is fluent in Spanish and has worked for a considerable period in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. He has recently been filming in the Sudan, Bolivia and Pakistan. In 2004 he was the first filmmaker to film the Darfur conflict traveling with the SLA rebels and was awarded the 2004 Rory Peck Award for this work. He is now developing Native Voice's first feature film as well as producing a series of reportages for Channel 4. Phil has a passion for his bicycle and chocolate cake.

Giovanna Stopponi
Producer
Giovanna from Italy has worked for 2 years with Native Voice, working on international projects and as head of development. A highly experienced producer with language skills she has often been the production and security link to filmmakers on the ground. Before coming to join the Natives, Giovanna studied law and worked at Amnesty International for 7 years. She then worked in hostile environments across Africa, with grass root peace negotiation and regeneration projects. She now works both in the field as a producer and oversees production from our London base. Giovanna's films have recently been nominated for the 2007 Amnesty International Media Awards. Giovanna is also a program director for a Ugandan - UK medical trust and is the Director of REACT - Refugee Education Across Conflicts Trust. Gugu is known to advise the Natives on their abysmal dress sense, to teach us the art of beach worship and how to cook the perfect pasta.

Lisa Cazzato Vieyra
Filmmaker
Lisa works as a producer camerawoman for Native Voice. Her recent works have been two series of short films, entitled Heavy Petting and The Forgotten Floods for Channel 4. Over the last four years, Lisa has worked with both video and film, producing acclaimed experimental and broadcast documentary films. Born in Lecce, Southern Italy, she came to London to study and work in photography. Lisa's background is extensive in the fashion and commercial photography industry, assisting various established photographers. In 2003 she has completed an MA in Fine Arts at S.Martins College of Arts and her photographic work, supported by grants from the Arts Council and awards, has been shown in London galleries as well as internationally. Lisa has recently filmed in Morocco two Al-Jazeera films and a series of shorts in London and India for Channel 4. She is currently directing a film in Japan for Al-Jazeera as well as a series of films for Channel 4 and Amnesty International for later in the year. 'La Bella' is well known for an individual and unknown dance floor style that she has been perfecting for the last few years.

Ed Owles
Filmmaker
Ed is the latest addition to the Native Voice team, and works in a variety of roles as director, cameraman and overseer of the biscuit tin. Following on from an MA in Visual Anthropology at Goldsmiths University he has made several short films for broadcast and NGOs and has filmed around the UK and across Southern India. He also co-runs film courses for children excluded from mainstream education, and teaches editing at Goldsmiths. Ed graduated from Cambridge with a degree in languages (Italian & Spanish) and social anthropology, and has a passionate interest in international happenings from the tribal to the geopolitical. He recently directed and shot a film for Al-Jazeera International and is currently in production of 4 short films for Channel 4 on a North Sea Oil Platform. He can also turn his head 360 degrees and eats mice for dinner.


Currently working with Native Voice Films :

Esteban Uyarra
Esteban is an award-winning director, editor and cinematographer of documentary films who has worked for several UK television channels, including the BBC. In 2002 he won Best International Documentary and Best Directorial Debut at the New York International Independent Film & Television Festival for his first documentary, The Runner. More recently his second documentary, War Feels Like War, has screened in festivals and on TV channels across the world and was nominated for the prestigious Grierson Awards. http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2004/warfeelslikewar/
Esteban also teaches with DFG for the Brunel University MA in Documentary Practice, and the MA in Visual Anthropology at Manchester University. He has been known to smoke over 200 cigarettes a day.



Ben Stark
Ben has worked for the last 12 years across many creative fields from theatre, music, photography and film - often incorporating all into a single project. Over the past 5 years Ben has primarily been a freelance film and television editor based in London with occasional forays into the world of commercial photography and directing. Ben has been working editing long form premier strand documentaries for various leading UK and international broadcasters. He was the producer/editor for the 4 year work of We Are the Indians.

Shruti Sharma
Native Voicers are delighted to welcome Shruti Sharma, a filmmaker from New Delhi in India. Shruti is our talented producer in India. With a background in film studies and cinematography, Shruti is also graduate in English Literature, She has made numerous short films - which have won awards at Delhi film festivals and is now working in the fields of dpcumentary and educational films. She has a wealth of talents, from copywriting, scriptwriting for radio & stage shows. Shruti is soon to become a world famous musician, we hope!

Valeria Mapelman
Valeria studied at the 'Instituto de Artes y Communicacion' (ARCOS) in Chile before moving to work in commercials and independent films. A highly experienced producer and cinematographer, she has worked extensively both in Chile and Argentina on numerous film and video projects. She has over five feature film credits as assistant director and her own works have regularly been part of the Latin American film festival circuit. For We Are the Indians feature documentary,together with Phil, Valeria lived and worked with the Mbya community, concentrating on developing stories with the women and co-directing.