MEDFEST 2013

 Emma is an Animator, Designer, Director and Doula, with an interest in Medical, Educational and Workshop films. She won the BAFTA for short animation in 2010 for her film "Mother of Many", and Excellence in Oncology for "One of a Kind".

A screenwriter, director and actor for television and film. His first radio play "Cry Hungary" was nominated for the Imerson Best Play Award. His first feature film "Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll" about punk legend Ian Dury, who suffered from polio, starring Andy Serkis, received 7 award nominations including two BAFTAs, and he was nominated by the Writers Guild for Best First Feature-Length Screenplay.

He has recently written the feature film "Ashes", a road movie thriller starring Ray Winstone as a man with Alzheimer's disease.

 Max Pemberton is a doctor, journalist and writer. He works full time in the NHS in mental health. He is a columnist for the Daily Telegraph and Reader's Digest as well as a contributor to the Mail on Sunday. He has won several awards for his writing, including the Mind Journalist of the Year and the Royal College of Psychiatrists Public Educator of the Year award. He is a presenter on the BBC Radio 4 flagship health programme, Inside Health. He has also written three books: Trust Me I'm A Junior Doctor, Where Does It Hurt? and The Doctor Will See You Now, all published by Hodder.

  Lord Alderdice is trained in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and founded and directed the Centre for Psychotherapy, Belfast. He was elected leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland and played a significant role in all Talks on Northern Ireland through to the 1988 Good Friday Agreement. He is Convenor (Chairman) of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party in the House of Lords.

Lord Alderdice is a panellists at the Belfast Event.

The resident Doctor on BBC Radio 1’s Surgery and part of the health team on Shelagh Fogarty’s show on BBC Radio Five Live. A regular contributor to various TV and radio shows including BBC Breakfast, CBBC’s Newsround, Channel 4’s Sex Education Show and programmes right across the World Service.

  Dr Clare Gerada is a London-based GP and Chair of Council of the Royal College of General Practitioners. Prior to general practice, she worked in psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital in South London, specialising in substance misuse. She has been Senior Medical Advisor to the Department of Health was was awarded an MBE for services to Medicine and Substance Misuse. She appeared in the documentary "Russell Brand: From Addiction to Recovery", part of which will be shown and discussed at Medfest events.

Dr Gerada will be a panellist at King's College London.

Ross Wilson is an exceptionally experienced and award-winning documentary maker. His experience ranges from presenter-led films to access-based observational documentaries through to investigative journalism with subject matters encompassing politics, crime, arts, music and history.

He has a track record of executive producing as well as producing and directing programmes for award-winning British documentary series such as BBC's One Life, Cutting Edge, Dispatches, Equinox andSecret History on Channel 4; Network First and Real Lives on ITV.

Psychiatrist & playwright. Ross conducts a 'Psychiatry and Cinema' teaching session on the medical undergraduate course. In 2006, Ross co-founded a small touring theatre company, producing several of his plays that have won festival awards for 'new writing' and 'best production'.

By day a consultant psychiatrist, Peter has a masters' degree in film studies and has lectured on the subject for 8 years. He devised and produced a short film, '1 in 4', that achieved a UK cinema distribution and was programme consultant to a BBC Horizon special on stigma in mental illness. He programmed the UK's first mental health film festival, alongside 'Reel Madness' and 'Happy Soul' Film Festivals and is a founding member and programmer of the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival.

Stephen Potts is a psychiatrist and screenwriter. He has been a Consultant in Liaison Psychiatry at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh since 1996, specialising in transplant psychiatry, for which he co-founded and co-chairs the UK professional interest group. His writing career began with children's fiction (seven books published) before moving into screenwriting, where he specialises in adaptation. He has had one feature film produced (a Philip Pullman adaptation) and three other scripts optioned. He has won awards for Best Adaptation at film festivals in New York and Monaco. He has recent commissions for an adaptation of a World War II novel, and an original horror film set at the time of the Russian Revolution. He is also currently writing a new TV medical drama series.

 Keir recently starred in BBC Three's Fly-On-The-Wall Series "Junior Doctors: Your Life in Their Hands". He is a paediatric trainee. He has presented and lectured on topics as diverse as "Abnormal Psychology and Darwinism", "Nutmeg, Liquorice and other Poisons" and "What the brain sees when it's not all there". Keir combines clinical practice with laboratory research and has a particular interest in Childhood Brain Cancers. He has a passionate interest in drama and cinema and has appeared as a presenter at The Life Science Centre and on Sky TV's "Brainiac".

A consultant psychiatrist with an interest in using films to aid learning in psychiatry. Joyce writes a monthly blog, hosted by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, called Minds on Film

John is a lecturer, journalist and film maker based in Birmingham. He has presented on the representations of Mental Health in cinema at a variety of events across the UK including the Royal Collefe of Psychiatrists AGM. As a film maker his work has been screened in festivals as diverse as Seattle, London, Melbourne and LA. John's primary interest is how the cinematic medium can be used to communicate a subjective experience of mental health to aid empathy and reduce stigma.

A journalist and television producer by background, Liz has worked in mental health policy and public affairs for more than a decade. As well as featuring in the Grierson Award-winning documentary 'Bye, Bye Happiness', where she talked about her own experience of bipolar disorder, Liz is a frequent television and radio commentator on mental health issues and policy. She has been a judge of the Mind Media Awards (formerly the Mental Health Media Awards) since 2001, and won a Speaking Out award for a Channel 4 piece report on mental health legislation. Liz is an advisor to the Time to Change program tht tackles mental health discrimination and stigma.

Liz is a panellist at the event in Belfast.

Brian has been a lecturer in medical schools for over 20 years, helping to create the first intercalated BSc in Medical Humanities (at UCL). His book Medicinema: Doctors in Films (Radcliffe) came out in 2010 and he is an expert in the field. Brian was our keynote speaker in 2011.

Dr Hughes has an interest in international psychiatry and integration of mental health into primary care in low and middle income countries.

He has worked internationally since 2005 - Haiti, Sudan, Malawi, Uganda, Somaliland, Ghana etc.

is international work has included disaster, war, HIV affected areas. He is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists International Committees and founder of the International Special Interest Group at the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

A Psychiatrist, film-maker and writer, Kamran founded Medfest in 2011. His previous work includes a documentary on mental health made while he was teaching medical students in Africa and an animated short 'Beards & Bowties' on the image of psychiatry. He recently wrote and directed a live action short film which is being premiered at Medfest 2013.

Lecturer in cognitive and social psychology at Cardiff University. Michael's interests span the genetics of psychiatric disorders, science communication, public understanding of mental illness and the neuroscience of emotion.

Aidan Turkington is a Consultant Psychiatrist in the Mater Hospital and Honorary Lecturer at Queen's University Belfast. He has a clinical interest in emerging psychosis in young people, and has published research in this area. He enjoys teaching on a wide range of subjects to medical students and trainee doctors.

Dr Turkington will be a panellist at the Belfast event.

Peter Sloan is a Consultant Psychiatrist in the Unscheduled Care Team, Belfast Health & Social Care Trust. He also chairs the Public Education Committee of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Northern Ireland. He has interests in medical education and the stigma associated with mental illness.

Peter is a panellists at the Belfast Event.

He has experience in directing, pitching new ideas, researching and camera operation. He is also a trained film archivist and a university graduate in Film Theory/Art History.

David has worked on hard-hitting projects including WireBurners, Detox or Die and The Dirty Digger. His films have aired across the BBC at both local (BBC Scotland) and national (network) level. David has started a film production company (Microdot Films) specialising in making educational films on addiction and recovery related issues.

David Scott will be a panellist in Glasgow

  Christa's medical background is in general practice and community paediatrics. She first worked overseas in the late 1970s in a mission hospital. In 1992, after completing the diploma in tropical medicine, she worked in Somalia with the Irish NGO Goal, before starting with MSF in 1994. She worked mainly in different countries in subSaharan Africa in emergency situations, and in the Caucasus as a field doctor. She coordinated the MSF medical programmes in Ethiopia and Afghanistan, before becoming a health advisor based in Amsterdam, continuing to work on the medical content of programmes in central Asian republics, West Africa and Ukraine. She developed her particular interest in malaria and went on to coordinate the MSF international malaria working group. This involved advising on research into drug resistance and translating the results into recommendations ont he use of effective drugs, working closely with the WHO.

Christa Hook will be a panellist in Glasgow.

Lucy Beresford is a writer, broadcaster and psychotherapist. She is also the Agony Aunt for the women's glossy Psychologies and appears regularly on television and radio. her latest book is Happy Relationships: at home, work & play.

Lucy will be a panellist at King's College London.

 Johnathan Reiner is a UCL graduate and a junior doctor working in London. He is currently on his A&E rotation. He completed a degree in Neuroscience from King's College London. Prior to medicine, Johnathan worked as a film and TV editor. He is an illustrator and runs the blog 'My Doodle a Day' (mydoodleaday.com) a squiggler's diary od daily doodles. He is a lover of film and has a special interest in film history, the portrayal of medicine and doctors in film and in raising the appeal of popular science as a tool for sparking curiosity and educating about health and the human body. He is currently working on an illustrated children's book and the workings of the heart.

   Dr Brendan Kelly is Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry at UCD and Consultant Psychiatrist at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital. He holds Masters Degrees in Epidemiology (MSc), Healthcare Management (MA) and Buddhist Studies (MA). In addition to his medical degree (MB BCh BAO), he holds Doctorates in Medicine (MD), History (PhD) and Governance (DGov). He is editor-in-chief of the Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine and has published in peer-reviewed journals nationally and internationally on psychiatry and film.

Brendan is participating in Medfest Dublin.

Dr Michael Doran currently works as a Consultant Psychiatrist in the Kildare Mental Health Services and has worked for nine years within the addiction speciality. He previously worked as Consultant Psychiatrist in Trinity College Dublin. Dr Doran was a previous Health Research Board Fellow and completed his Higher Specialist Training with a special interest in addiction. In particular, He has a special interest in cocaine addiction rehabilitation and Attention Deficit & Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in adults.

Dr Doran is participating in Medfest Dublin

Dr Anne Douglas is Lead Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Head of the Trauma Service in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. She is an honorary senior clinical lecturer at the University of Glasgow and has specialised in the field of trauma for over 25 years. in 2000 she set up the Compass mental health liaison team for asylum seekers and refugees which she has continued to lead. Compass has won a number of national awards. In 2006 she received the British Psychological Society award for Promoting Equality of Opportunity in the UK. She is a regular speaker nationally and internationally at trauma conferences. In 2012 she was awared an OBE for services to the health of asylum seekers and refugees.

Dr Douglas will be a panellist in Glasgow.

Dr Concepta Merry is a Senior Lecturer in Global Health Medicine at Trinity College Dublin and Consultant Specialist in Infectious Diseases at St James's Hospital, Dublin. Dr Merry established a HIV Drug Information Centre in Uganda (AIDS Treatment Information Center) in collaboration with the medicine information centres at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago and St. James’s Hospital. She runs an Irish-Ugandan charity as part of her academic social responsibility. Her personal interests include Art and in particular that created by HIV patients.

Ceppie is participating in Medfest Dublin.

Dr Rhona Mahony is currently Master Designate of Holles Street, the National Maternity Hospital of Ireland. She completed her clinical training with Maternal and Fetal Medicine Subspecialisation at National Maternity Hospital and Birmingham Women’s Hospital Dr Mahony is widely published on clinical obstetrics, macrosomia and fetal medicine. She was appointed as a consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist with a special interest in Maternal and Fetal Medicine in 2009 at the National Maternity Hospital. Dr Mahony is participating in Medfest Dublin.

Rory qualified at UCL and is a CT3 trainee in psychiatry in Camden. He has a degree in Medical Humanities and has published research on the portrayal of psychiatric disorders in film, particularly autism. His passions are photography, acting, stand-up comedy and Medfest, which he lead in 2012 with huge success.