Dr Orson Nava BA, PGDip, PGCert, MA, PhD
Currently reading: Academic Background and Research
Biography
Dr Orson Nava is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Film Production.
He is a filmmaker, academic, and cultural theorist whose work spans fiction, documentary, and critical writing. He is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Refugees, Migration and Belonging at the University of East London.
Before entering academia, Dr. Nava built a successful career as a freelance director, creating dramas and documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV and directing music videos for major record labels including Polydor, EMI, and Island Records.
Website: https://www.orsonnava.com
- BA (Hons) Digital Film Production
- Senior Lecturer
Academic Background and Research
Dr.Nava holds a fully funded PhD from the University of East London, where his research explored race, innovation, and the creative industries within the context of East London’s regeneration. His academic interests continue to focus on the intersection of power, identity, and emerging technologies.
He is currently developing a Film Practice as Research Centre at Ravensbourne, aimed at fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and producing socially engaged screen work.
Teaching
Dr. Nava has taught film production and theory at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels at institutions including: University of East London, Sheffield Hallam University, Middlesex University, Central Film School and London Film School
He is an alumnus of both the Northern Media School and the National Film and Television School, which are two of the UK’s most respected centres for creative media training.
Creative Practice and Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Dr. Orson’s film work blends narrative storytelling with critical inquiry. Whether working in fiction or documentary, he draws on influences from post-colonial cultural studies, psychoanalysis, urban sociology, and critical theory to interrogate systems of power and cultural identity.
At the heart of Dr. Nava’s work is a commitment to interdisciplinarity and the belief in the radical potential of film to challenge dominant narratives, critique hegemonic ideologies, and drive cultural change. His work is deeply engaged with the social impact of digital technologies, and how they shape identity and creative expression.
He frequently collaborates with ethnographers, sociologists, historians, and cultural theorists, using film as a tool for both creative expression and social critique.
Productions
- DISTERRA (2024), Writer and Director.
- The Building (2024), Writer and Director
- Decolonialising the Curatorial Process (2020), Writer and Director
- The Drive (short drama 2019.), Writer and Director
- Multicology? (2019), Writer and Director
- A Viable Candidate (2016, 20 minutes), Writer and Director
- Everyday Borders (2016), Writer and Director
- The ICR Road Movie (2015), Co-director, Co-camera, Editor 2015
- Montage of films produced for the Rix Research Centre, Writer and Director
Publications and Educational Awards
- Multicologies? The development of multi-racial creative ecologies in East London. Article published in the European Journal of Cultural Policy. (2022) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10286632.2022.2141235
- Grime Music video production as Radical Ethno-cartography. Article published in the Living Maps online Journal of radical cartography (2021)
Educational Awards
- 2019 PhD. Eastern Promise? Race, Innovation and Inequality in the Creative Industries-Driven Regeneration of East London. University of East London
2003 Advanced Diploma in directing Drama. National Film and Television School - 1998 MA in Directing Fiction. The Northern Media School
- 1997 PGDip Directing Fiction. The Northern Media School
- 1995 BA Communications studies (2.1) Sheffield Hallam University