Dr. Catalin Brylla is Principal Lecturer in Film and TV and Deputy Director of the Centre for the Study of Conflict, Emotion and Social Justice at Bournemouth University. He is also Fellow of the Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image and Chair of its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee.

His work advocates for the filmmaker’s understanding of how media representation impacts on society’s perception of stigmatised groups, such as disabled people in general, blind people, African cultures, sex workers and women in minority communities. He has been part of the Youth Disability Advocacy and Research project, which supports disability advocacy through media in East Africa.

As a research-led filmmaker he has made documentaries about such communities, including The Terry Fragments, June’s Patchwork and Zanzibar Soccer Dreams (with Florence Ayisi). Most of his research and film practice focus on the social impact of media, and he has organised several events on this topic, such as the Social Impact of Audio-visual Media symposium.

His methodological approaches include spectatorship, social psychology, cognitive psychology, audience research and ethnography. These have informed his publications, including the co-edited volumes Documentary and Disability (with Helen Hughes) and Cognitive Theory and Documentary Film (with Mette Kramer).

To see more about Catalin’s work, visit his website or his university profile.