Rachael Castell is a director, producer and interactive consultant. She runs her own production company under the banner of which she has directed films for the Fabulous Russella, Marawa the Amazing, The Broken Hearts, Royal Institute of British Architects, British Waterways, Opera Europa, Glyndebourne Opera, English National Opera, Masterclass Haymarket, the UK government’s Music and Dance Scheme, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission. She is also working on a documentary feature: The Congo Project, and is in post-production on a short film about the artist Belle Benfield whose focus on ‘home grown wealth’ (the value of environmental sustainability over money) is of deep interest to Rachael. Until December 2009, Rachael was English National Opera’s Interactive Producer producing and directing high quality video content with a view to providing dynamic, engaging, uniquely creative access to ENO productions, company members and teams. It was also her task to develop a long term interactive audience development strategy for the company, involving social networking and blogging. Prior to her appointment at ENO, Rachael worked as the Head of New Media for Adventure Pictures (Sally Potter’s production company), and previous to that spent four years as Producer of the East End Film Festival. Rachael is a freelance sub-editor and film journalist with print and radio experience, and holds an MA in the History of Film and Visual Media with distinction. She has produced and directed a total of over 100 short films on a range of formats from 35mm to HDv – both as part of her interactive outreach work and purely for art. Finally, she is a proud member of contemporary acoustic folk duo Rye.
This is a short promotional film I made for the Architects in Residence scheme as run by the Royal Institute of British Architects and Arts Inform. Sadly, it is not currently available on their websites as they are awaiting funding to continue the programme, but I'm proud to be able to showcase it here.
In the Summer of 2011, artists from the Interact Centre of Performing Arts, MN, USA and from l'Arche de Ngoujel, Pointe Noire, Congo collaborated on a touring theatrical project throughout Congo Brazzaville. The play that they performed was written by Alain Ngono, based on his experiences during the Civil War. The play was performed twice with two different Pygmy villages. This is footage from the second village of Nyanga.
In the Summer of 2011, artists from the Interact Centre of Performing Arts, MN, USA and from l'Arche de Ngoujel, Pointe Noire, Congo collaborated on a touring theatrical project throughout Congo Brazzaville. The play that they performed was written by Alain Ngono, based on his experiences during the Civil War. The play was performed twice with two different Pygmy villages. This is footage from the first village of Indo.
This is just after our arrival in Nyanga.
This promotional trailer was produced by Rachael for the Raindance and Raindance East Film Festivals in association with Zak and Dan.
Behind the scenes with the set and production designers for Lost Highway.
Dir: Rachael Castell Journey through the spectacular world of circus performance past and present with Amber and Nisha - the East End?s own Broken Hearts DJs.
This short film was made for the UK government's Music and Dance scheme final show, 2010.
This short film was made for inclusion in the Sound Moves event at the Royal Festival Hall 2010.
This is one of several short films made for the Theatre Royal, Haymarket's annual Theatrecraft event. It was included on a DVD which was offered to all students attending as a further insight into the world of backstage theatrical work.
