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 has been published widely.

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.

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 currently as 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.

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.