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Duncan Cowles is a BAFTA Scotland Award winning documentary filmmaker whose short films ‘The Lady with the Lamp’, ‘Radio Silence’, ‘Directed by Tweedie’, ‘Isabella’, ‘Alexithymia’, ’Taking Stock’, ’Just Agree Then’  & ‘In the Company of Insects’ have been selected for various film festivals at home and internationally.

His short films have also won a selection of awards at festivals such as Glasgow Short Film Festival, Open City Documentary Festival, BFI Future Film Festival, Hamburg Short Film Festival, Kyiv Short Film Festival, Szczecin European Film Festival and more, plus gained significant online exposure through platforms such as Short of the Week, Vimeo Staff Picks, BFI Player, MUBI, It’s Nice That, TED and numerous others.

In recent years Duncan has also been commissioned to write and direct documentaries for Channel 4, STV, BBC Scotland, BBC Radio 4, TED, Adobe, Red Bull and more. Most recently Duncan was commissioned to make x6 30minute episodes of his own new documentary TV series ‘Scary Adult Things’ which looks at the struggles of the millennial generation for BBC Scotland and aired in March 2021.

Duncan graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2013 with a 1st Class degree and a specialisation in directing documentary film before going on to work for the internationally renowned Scottish Documentary Institute for three years (2013-15) as a technical co-ordinator and on the programming team for feature documentaries at the Edinburgh International Film Festival for five years (2013-17).

In 2017 Duncan founded his own production company Relative Films Ltd to facilitate the production of his first feature documentary project which he initially took to IDFA Academy before being awarded development funding from Screen Scotland & Whickers World Foundation. The film is currently nearing the end of post-production and due to be completed in 2023.

In 2022 Duncan was commissioned as part of the UK’s largest ever Immersive Storytelling event ‘Storytrails’ to create an augmented reality documentary story which takes place around the city of Dundee with support from BFI, BBC, Nexus Animation, The Reading Agency and StoryFutures.

Alongside his directing work Duncan has also hosted and facilitated a range of documentary filmmaking workshops for all ages at  institutions such as D&AD, University of Edinburgh, BFI, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Flatpack Film Festival, VIS Vienna Shorts, Screen Academy Scotland, Mental Health Foundation, Queen Margaret University, Glasgow Film Theatre, Inverness Film Festival, Film Access Scotland and GMac.

Duncan C

Duncan C

Duncan C

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