Writer and Director
Jonathon Crewe - Bio
Jonathon is an award-winning writer and director for film, theatre and radio, whose work predominantly investigates forms of representation and social-hierarchies.
As a playwright and director his work has been produced at a number of off-West End theatres, receiving an Offcomm Commendation and a Standing Ovation award for his production of Under the Radar.
His debut feature film, face2face, won best director at both the Alternative Film Festival, Canada and the Word Distribution Awards, USA. The film was a finalist in the prestigious Gold Movie Awards, UK. His follow up, filmed during lockdown - 'Last night, locked in... was an Honorable Mention at the L.A. Neo-Noir Festival and won Best Supporting Actor at the World Film Carnival, Singapore. Jon has previously written and directed a number of award nominated short films with the Human Factory Filmmaking Collective which he formed in 2004, including the internationally exhibited sci-fi short Quantum and the internationally acclaimed American Gun. His debut feature screenplay Donna4Eva was shortlisted for a David Lean Award.
For radio he has written and directed three feature length plays, Tangier, Toy Soldier and Entangled, all broadcast on Resonance FM. Jonathon was subsequently commissioned by WhoSaid? Theatre to adapt Toy Soldier for a two week run at the Brockley Jack Theatre.
Jonathon is currently working on a slate of feature films and a forthcoming run of Under the Radar at the Old Red Lion Theatre. He is always looking for creative collaborations.
Writing, Research, Teaching and Outreach
Apart from his ongoing creative projects, Jon is also engaged in sharing his passion for film and creative writing with up and coming film- and theatre-makers. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in Film and Creative Writing at The University of West London where he is developing practice-based research methodologies.
Jonathon graduated from Reading University in 2003 with a BA Film and Drama (First Class). He graduated from Royal Holloway’s Skillset Accredited MA Feature Film Screenwriting (Distinction) in 2009. He completed his fully-funded PhD Creative Writing at Surrey University where he investigated representations of the white working class in mainstream media, politics and contemporary literature. At Surrey he lectured in Screenwriting, Filmmaking and Creative Writing
Another London - Novel. Click to buy.
Another London follows twenty years in the life of Dean, a white working class boy living on an East London estate. At the age of eleven he witnesses a violent gang assault that dramatically affects his relationships with his friends, his family and the two, very different, women in his life. Set against the backdrop of major events, such as the 7/7 bombings and the London riots of 2011, the story charts estate life through Dean’s eyes. Excluded from the mainstream, he turns to a violent gang for work. But when their drug dealing turns to hate crimes, his conscience is tested and he has to decide whether to follow orders or stand up for what he believes.
Screening older age: The representation of older adults in British cinema between 2010 and 2022 - Report co-written with Dennis A. Olsen and Marcus Nicholls for The Centre for Ageing Well - Click to read
'Last night, locked in...': Narrative fiction and embedded filmmaking as a response to, and a reflection on the existential impact of domestic confinement during the COVID-19 Lockdowns - Journal Article published on SCREENWORKS - Click to read
Another London, another point of view: the use of defamiliarisation to elicit empathy in the reader for the white working-class protagonist in Another London and their ‘real-world’ equivalents - Journal Article published in NEW WRITING: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing - Click to read
The construction of (white) working-class identity in narrative literary texts and its contribution to socio-cultural and politico-financial inequality - Journal Article published in The Journal for Cultural Research - Click to read