Rachael is a curator and producer based in Hawick, having joined Alchemy in 2018. Rachael taught on Edinburgh College of Art’s MFA in Contemporary Art Theory (2020-22) and prior to Alchemy was Project Manager at Deveron Projects. Rachael has served as a mentor and jury member on various training schemes, advisory groups, artist residencies and national awards in the arts and regeneration sectors, and has contributed to publications and panels with numerous organisations and film festivals.

Michael is a critic from Gateshead. He holds a PhD in film practice from Newcastle University and is the editor of several books; his own criticism has been published widely. Michael has worked at numerous international film festivals as a curator, critic, advisor, keynote speaker, tutor and jury member. He joined Alchemy as a programmer in 2016, and has been a Director since 2019.

Milo first joined Alchemy as part of a student placement during his Masters in Film Curation at the University of Glasgow, and has since gone on to work with the organisation as a Trainee, Print Traffic Coordinator, Programme Assistant and Assistant Producer. He also works freelance as a writer and curator, with his first novel due to be published in the spring of 2024. He is drawn to the intersection of art, activism and social practice and has a particular interest in queer and DIY film.

Originally from the Czech Republic, Zuzana is interested in inter-cultural socio-political contexts and local-global links. Her experience in socially-engaged arts has been shaped by her time at Deveron Projects, where she explored the connection between art, community, hospitality and environment, working with local communities and local, national and international artists. In her free time, Zuzana enjoys travelling, roaming around the woods and hills, going for a dip in the North Sea, exploring and learning, and just being active and creative in any way possible. She likes organising parties for her friends and has been told she can’t sit still – though she says she’s been learning.

Since joining Alchemy in 2019, Tom has been working as a filmmaker and creative enabler with the diverse communities of Hawick and the Scottish Borders. Films made with and by these groups have been screened in parliament and various film festivals, and several have won awards. With a focus on meaningful participation, encouraging creative expression and learning genuinely useful skills through filmmaking, Tom is always excited to see what is created next.

Mark Lyken is a film and sound artist based in rural Dumfriesshire, Scotland. Inspired by hybrid and experimental approaches, Mark has developed a personal and distinct approach to filmmaking. Embedding himself within communities, he builds relationships with individuals and works collaboratively to cultivate scenes that empower those onscreen on their own terms. Mark’s Notes From a Low Orbit residency with Alchemy in 2021 resulted in a feature film of the same name, made with and about Hawick’s communities, as well as an accompanying publication.

Miwa is a folk musician, silversmith and artist who lives and works in Hawick. Her collaborative practice draws on folk traditions to explore multicultural understandings of history, climate and gender.

Francisco is an artist and a doctoral candidate at the University of Edinburgh. As part of his artistic practice, he has completed multiple residencies, developed public art commissions, and facilitated numerous socially engaged projects on displacement. He is a fellow artist at the University of Glasgow’s UNESCO Chair Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts. In 2022, Francisco completed a Masters by Research in Latin American Studies, where he examined the representation of the Venezuelan migration crisis in contemporary art. Funded by the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities, his doctoral project approaches the Venezuelan refugee crisis through an interdisciplinary lens, focusing on how the representation and performance of gender, race and class shapes the cultural production and migratory experience of Venezuelans.

Walt was born at a very young age, went to school, grew up a bit, and is still doing so… 

Born in the Welsh Borders, Walt ratcheted north and north, moving to the Scottish Borders in 2005 during a bit of a nomadic phase, and ended up recognising Hawick as a ‘good’ thing. He was drafted as an Alchemist for the second edition of Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, and wondering what it was all about as a volunteer, found the ‘get in and dig’ philosophy chimed with his own sensibilities.  

Bred in Trinidad and based in London, Jonathan Ali is a film curator and writer. He is director of programming for Third Horizon Film Festival and co-founder of the Twelve30 Collective. In addition to being a programmer for Alchemy Film & Arts, he is a programme advisor for Open City Documentary Festival and an artistic advisor to the Open Doors programme at Locarno Film Festival. His byline has appeared in Sight & Sound magazine and elsewhere. 

April Lin 林森 (b. 1996, Stockholm — they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist and independent curator investigating image-making and world-building as sites for the construction, sustenance, and dissemination of co-existent yet conflicting truths. They interweave moving image, performance, creative computing and installation in a commitment to centring oppressed knowledges, building an ethics of collaboration around reciprocal care, and exploring the linkages between history, memory, and interpersonal and structural trauma. Their work has been shown at the Museum of the Moving Image New York, Sheffield DocFest, LA Filmforum,  and NOWNESS Asia.

Samhradh Douglas was brought up in France before moving to the Scottish Borders. Following an MA in Music, specialising in music production, she is a multi-disciplinary artist with a love for making atmospheric electronic music and short films. She previously volunteered for the thirteenth edition of Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival.

Esmé Babineaux (they/them) is a performer, director, and facilitator from the Scottish Borders. They have been acting in professional theatre for more than a decade, and started teaching during lockdown. Due to having too many fingers in too many pies, they have recently taken a dramatic tumble into the world of film and curation. They have no formal training or education, instead opting for an overabundance of feelings, most of which are about class, disability, and gender.