About Spectacle

Spectacle is an award-winning independent production company specialising in documentary, community-led, investigative journalism and participatory media.

Spectacle's documentary work has been broadcast and exhibited internationally, and shown on Channel 4.

We have produced work on commission for clients including:

Amnesty International, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Howard League for Penal Reform, Council of Europe, Groundwork, the London Health Commission, the NHS, Big Local and the Wellcome Trust.

As well as undertaking production, documentation and community engagement commissions, Spectacle provides facilities to independent filmmakers, runs short, sharp, affordable training courses and community based media workshops.

About Mark Saunders

Mark Saunders, who teaches every course himself, is an award-winning independent filmmaker, media activist and writer. His expertise in the field spans over three decades.

Mark's films have been broadcast internationally and exhibited at galleries, including Tate Britain, the National Film Theatre, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Musee des Beaux-Arts, the National Media Museum and the Photographers Gallery.

Mark is currently running Spectacle Productions, a company which he founded in 1990.

He has also been teaching for over 20 years, and has been a visiting lecturer at a number of institutions, including the London School of Economics, University College London, Cambridge University, the Royal College of Art, the London College of Communications, Bournemouth University, Florence University, HafenCity University Hamburg, and Coventry University. He is currently teaching film at Birkbeck College.

Mark has a BA (hons) in Film, Television and Photography from the London College of Printing, and an MA in Screenwriting from the University of London.

About Michele de Laurentiis

Dr. Michele de Laurentiis is an anthropologist, independent filmmaker, and Participatory Video practitioner. He has carried out long term ethnographic research in Italy (prisons, migration, health care) and Bolivia (rituals, indigenous politics, mining conflicts). 

Michele has led independent PV projects in Italy and the UK. He has been part of Spectacle’s team for over 6 years where he coordinates Participatory Video programmes and video training for social research. 

He is also a lecturer at Unicamillus University (Rome) and a postgraduate research student at Roehampton University (London) developing practice based research on the potentials of Participatory Video as a film strategy and research tool.