About
Director’s Bio
Tim Travers Hawkins began to study and train as a filmmaker in Buenos Aires, Argentina under Pino Solanas (Hour of the Furnaces) and Fernando Birri (Tire Die), founders of Third Cinema, a radical filmmaking movement that was inspired by the revolutionary ideals of 1960s Latin America.
He went on to complete a diploma in directing documentaries at the world-renowned International Film School (EICTV) in Havana.
He also has a first class honors degree in Politics and Spanish from Bristol University, UK, and was twice awarded a prize by the Mexican Embassy for ‘Outstanding Work in Latin American Studies’ (2003 & 2009).
In 2007 he founded the filmmaking collective Movimiento Cinemachete, born out of the underground arts scene in Bogotá, Colombia.
He works in a variety of different formats, from documentaries and fictions to video installations and performances pieces, and has realized projects in Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Germany, Portugal and the UK. His work is strongly political, revealing how social systems shape and affect the behavior and feelings of individuals.
Recent projects have tackled the murder of witnesses in the ongoing trials against Argentina's brutal military junta (Esperando a Jose, 2006), the body politics of teenagers from a slum in Colombia (El Otro Lado de la Cienaga, 2007), the relationship between art and play for children growing up in Cuba (China o Japon?, 2007), the indifference and coldness that leads to the murder of asylum seekers (Oury Jalloh, 2008), the dehumanizing effect of bureaucratic systems (1000 Voices, 2009) and the destruction of people’s relationship with the land (Bathed by the Tiger, in post production).
In 2008 Oury Jalloh was awarded the UNESCO/Amnesty International Human Rights Film Award and the German Youth Video Prize.
1000 Voices, his first animated film, was in the official selection at Raindance and Sheffield Docfest, and was shortlisted for the Emerging Talent in Animation Award at Encounters. It has just been selected for and Tampere Film Festival and shortlisted for the British Animation Awards 2010.