Dave James

Self-taught British filmmaker Dave James has always been an avid follower of cinema and the media. So far, he has been involved in several short films and independent productions with his entertainment review website SquabbleBox.co.uk. Raised in Stourbridge, near Birmingham, he studied film at university with hopes of becoming a historian. Around this time, he had been a regular contributor to DVD Times (now the Home Cinema Forum) and penned several articles for academic publication MediaMagazine. Such interests in the medium led to his first collaboration with fellow film enthusiast Kevin Powis. The result was a 15-minute short, the comedy crime caper The Golden Sphere (2003), which was written when he was only 18. He admits that it was clearly the work of both a first-time director and writer, and that it stands as an educational tool. He later collaborated with Powis on the shorts Nightwalk (2005) and The Killin' (2005), which screened at a variety of UK film festivals. In 2010, he moved into directing his own projects, with music video "The Interview" for cult alternative band The Gruber. He also acted as producer, editor and cinematographer on the project. In conjunction with his website, he also launched the web series Talkin' Heads in 2014 as director and producer.