Dr Jonathon Crewe

Dr Jonathon Crewe

Associate Professor in Film and Creative Writing
London School of Film, Media and Design
jonathon.crewe@uwl.ac.uk

Jonathon is an award-winning writer and director for film, theatre and radio, whose work predominantly investigates forms of representation and social-hierarchies. His latest theatre production, Under the Radar, is a dark comedy about gender, consent, power and violence, which examines our cultures and traditions and asks how connected they are to the foundations of prejudice.    

He released his debut feature film, face2face, in 2021, winning 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 latest project, filmed during lockdown - 'Last night, locked in...' was an official selection at the L.A. Neo-Noir Festival and is available on Amazon. 

He completed his 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 before moving to become a Senior Lecturer at the University of West London, where he is developing practice-based research methodologies. 

Jonathon welcomes MPhil/PhD practise-led applications in Creative Writing, Screenwriting, Dramatic Writing and Film.

  • Qualifications

    • BA Film and Drama (Reading)
    • MA Feature Film Screenwriting (Royal Holloway)
    • PhD Creative Writing (Surrey) 

  • Memberships

    Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Teaching

As an interdisciplinary researcher and practitioner, Jonathon teaches across multiple courses in Media, English, Creative Writing and Film with a focus on practice-based research methodologies and developing creative practice. 

Research

  • Research and publications

    Peer-reviewed articles

    Olsen, D. A., Crewe, J., and Nicholls, M., (2023) Screening older age The representation of older adults in British cinema between 2010 and 2022, Centre for Ageing Better. Available at: https://ageing-better.org.uk/sites/default/files/2023-02/cast-aside-full-report.pdf

    Crewe, J., (2022) ‘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, Screenworks: the peer-reviewed online publication of practice research in screen media, DOI: https://doi.org/10.37186/swrks/12.1

    Crewe, J., (2021) Creative writing as a research methodology, New Vistas 7(2), p.26-30. doi: https://doi.org/10.36828/newvistas.150 

    Jonathon Crewe (2021) The construction of (white) working-class identity in narrative literary texts and its contribution to socio-cultural and politico-financial inequality, Journal for Cultural Research DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14797585.2021.1942943 

    Jonathon Crewe (2019) '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, New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing DOI: 10.1080/14790726.2019.1625410 

    Selected Practice-Led Outputs

    Writer, Director and Organiser, Under the Radar, theatre production and research discussion panels. Old Red Lion Theatre, London, 15th Mar - 2nd Apr 2022

    • Supported by Arts Council England, the Culture Capital Exchange and University of West London Knowledge Exchange Seed Fund.

    Writer and Director, 'Last night, locked in..., feature film, 2021. Available on Amazon. 

    • Winner - Best Supporting Actor, World Film Carnival, Singapore
    • Official Selection - L.A. Neo-Noir Festival, USA

    Writer and Director, face2face, feature film, 2021. Available on Film Ahoy.  

    • World Distribution Awards, USA - Winner Best First Time Director 
    • Alternative Film Festival, Canada - Winner Best Director 
    • Depth of Field International Film Festival - Winner Award of Merit 
    • Gold Movie Awards, London - Finalist Best Low Budget Feature Film 
    • Wales International Film Festival, UK - Finalist Best Feature Film 
    • Sunset Film Festival, Los Angeles - Official Selection 

    Writer and Director, Under the Radar, theatre production. Bread and Roses Theatre, London, 12-16th Nov 2019 

    Writer, Director and Producer, Entangled, feature radio play. Broadcast July 2016 on Resonance FM. 

    Writer and Director, Toy Soldier, produced by Who Said? Theatre. Performed at the Brockley Jack Theatre from 27 Sep 2016 - 8 Oct 2016. 

    Writer, Director and Producer, Toy Soldier, feature radio play. Broadcast July 2014 on Resonance FM. 

    Writer and Producer, Tangier, feature radio play. Dir: Hugh Allison, HuRica Productions. Broadcast March 2013, Resonance FM and Poplar Radio. 

    Writer and Director, American Gun, short film, Three Brain Cells, 2011. Available at Aesthetica Film Festival.

    • Nominated for Best Short Film at: 
      • American American Online Film Awards, New York, USA, 2014 
      • This Is England, Rouen, France, 2012 
      • Aesthetica Film Festival, York, UK, 2012 
      • Bornshorts Film Festival, Bornholm, Denmark, 2012 
      • Open Cinema Festival, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2012 
      • Edinburgh Short Film Festival, UK, 2012 
      • Berlin British Shorts Film Festival, Germany, 2012 
      • EuroShorts, Warsaw, Poland, 2011 
      • 7th Renderyard Film Festival, Spain, 2011 
      • Budapest International Short Film Festival, Hungary, 2011 

    Writer and Director, The Hypnotist, short film, The Human Factory, 2010.


    • Nominated for Best Experimental Film at End of the Pier International Film Festival, UK, 2010.

    Writer and Director, The Joker, Short Film, Clockwork Amoeba Ltd/The Human Factory, 2010.

    • 
Nominated for Best Comedy Film at End of the Pier International Film Festival, 2010. 

    Writer and Director, Quantum, Short Film, The Human Factory, 2008. 

    • Nominated for Best Short Film at: 
      • Swansea International Film Festival, UK, 2008 
      • England International Film Festival, UK, 2008 
      • British Film Festival, Los Angeles, USA, 2008

  • Conferences

    Crewe, J., (2023) ‘Under the Radar: A potential framework for community engagement with cultural artefacts’, Knowledge Exchange Conference, University of West London, London, 29th March 2023 

    Crewe, J., Scientific Committee, Multimodus: Conference on Sound and Image in Art and Design, Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre, Portugal, 7-8th June 2022

    Crewe, J., (2020) ’Creative Writing as a Practice-Based Research Methodology. A case study of Under the Radar: Narrativising an unknowable history as an exploration into the culture of male privilege’, TRAJECTORIES 2020. London, 1st June 2020.

    Crewe, J., (2014-2018) Expert Panel Member, Surrey New Writers Festival, University of Surrey 

    • Writing for Television and Film - 2nd June 2018 
    • Visual Storytelling – Writing for Television, Film, and the Stage - 6th May 2017 
    • Digital and Multimedia Publishing (chair) - June 2016 
    • The Business and Craft of Scriptwriting - June 2014

  • Research degree supervision

    First Supervisor

    • Towards an eco-critical literary novel (working title) (Stephanie Kay)

    Second Supervisor

    • The Notorious Turpin: A television screenplay, and a thesis on myth-making in adaptations of the life of a historical British criminal (Alistair Hagger)
    • The Bilingual Writer: Three Types of Translation and a Mystery Novel in English and Spanish (Isabel del Rio)
    • A Fractured Life: A Novel, and a Thesis on History-as-Adaptation (Vanessa Fisher)

Courses taught on