The Centre for Urban Research (CURB)
Sue Clayton
Professor Clayton is Professor of Film and Television, and Director of the new Screen School at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her most recent film as director is the award-winning documentary HAMEDULLAH: THE ROAD HOME (2012) which tells the story of a young refugee in the UK who was deported back to Afghanistan, and to whom she gave a digital camera. The film has screened at the United Nations in Geneva, and submitted to the Select Committee which seeks to change the law on deporting young people to war zones.
Professor Clayton is currently working with CURB co-director Dr Simon Parker on a research project documenting the trajectories of migrants and refugees via the central Mediterranean to northern Europe as part of the International Centre for the Study of Urban Vulnerability (ICSUV) initative. Her pioneering film work with young Afghan refugees is currently the subject of a major investigation by BBC News and BBC One World.
Sue Clayton also co-wrote and directed the following dramas: THE LAST CROP starring Kerry Walker (The Piano) and Noah Taylor (Shine); British Academy-nominated HEART SONGS starring Tom McCamus, and the award-winning feature film THE DISAPPEARANCE OF FINBAR for which she discovered Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Bend it like Beckham, Vanity Fair) and which was released worldwide by Film Four and Buena Vista International. She was chosen from 600 new European directors to have her work showcased in New York and Hollywood (First Film Foundation/Panavision awards) Her rising career was the subject of a Channel Four documentary Upstarts, Broadcast on Channel 4 in August 1999.
In recent years she has focused on screenwriting, and has written JUMOLHARI, a screenplay set in Bhutan, produced by Donald Ranvaud (City of God, Central Station) and an adaptation of THE LOST GIRL by DH Lawrence, with support from Yellow Bird Films (Wallander, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).
These are some of the websites relating to Sue's current refugee project: