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Sheila Hayman

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Sheila Hayman (born 1956) is a British documentary filmmaker, journalist and novelist.

Life

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Sheila Hayman was born in 1956, one of three daughters of Walter Hayman and Margaret Hayman, who together founded the British Mathematical Olympiad. She is a descendant of the composer Fanny Mendelssohn.[1] Her older sister is Carolyn Hayman, cofounder of Peace Direct. She was educated at Putney High School and Newnham College, Cambridge.[2]

Hayman joined the Science department of the BBC, and later worked with Channel 4.[3] In 1990 she was awarded a BAFTA Fulbright Fellowship in film and television by the Fulbright Commission.[4] She moved to Los Angeles to learn screenwriting. In California she encountered the early internet, about which she made the BBC documentary The Electronic Frontier.[3]

Hayman's film Mendelssohn, the Nazis and Me (2009) wove together the legacy of Felix Mendelssohn with the experience of her family and other Jewish survivors of Nazi Germany.[5] The documentary was nominated for the Grierson Arts Documentary of the Year in 2010.[6]

In 2016 Hayman was appointed a Director's Fellow at the MIT Media Lab.[7] At MIT she began a documentary project, Senseless, on the difference between machine and human intelligence.[8] In 2020 she was Artist in Residence at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.[9] The residency led to a short film, Complexity, with music by Cosmo Sheldrake, on the challenges of reducing the natural world's complexity to computer models.[10]

Hayman's 2023 documentary Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn told the story of her great-great-great-grandmother, the composer Fanny Mendelssohn, and the rediscovery of her lost Easter Sonata.[11][12][13]

Hayman is married to the TV producer and writer Patrick Uden.[14] She serves on the advisory board of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy.[15] She has a long-term job at Freedom from Torture,[16] where she coordinates a creative writing group for torture survivors, 'Write to Life'. She has also written three comic novels.[3]

Works

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TV

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  • (dir.) Robots: Taking the Biscuit. BBC 1, 1986.
  • (producer) Killer Bimbos on Fleet Street! BBC 2, 1990.
  • (dir.) The Electronic Frontier. BBC, 1993.
  • (dir.) Witness: LA Coroner. Channel 4, 1997.

Films

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  • (dir.) Mendelssohn, the Nazis, and Me. 2009.
  • (dir.) Complexity. 2020. Short film. Music by Cosmo Sheldrake.
  • (dir.) Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn. 2023

Novels

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  • Small Talk. Hodder Headline, 2001.
  • Are We Nearly There Yet? Hodder Headline, 2004
  • Mrs Normal Saves the World. Various Books, 2009.

References

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  1. ^ Hawkins, Derek (9 March 2017). "A Mendelssohn masterpiece was really his sister's. After 188 years, it premiered under her name". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2024-07-06.
  2. ^ "Wall of Women". Newnham College.
  3. ^ a b c Glenn, Marsha (20 June 2019). "Pacifist Warrior: Sheila Hayman". The Guardian.
  4. ^ "Reception: Fulbright Commission". The Times. 17 July 1990. p. 16.
  5. ^ Ivry, Benjamin (29 March 2010). "Nazis, Mendelssohns and Music: The Mendelssohn Mishpocha on Surviving Felix". Forward. Retrieved 2024-07-06.
  6. ^ "The Grierson Trust : Nominations 2010". 2011-08-10. Archived from the original on 2011-05-19. Retrieved 2024-07-06.
  7. ^ "2016 MIT Media Lab Director's Fellows announced". MIT News. July 22, 2016. Retrieved 2024-07-06.
  8. ^ "WATCH: Is artificial intelligent? With Sheila Hayman". Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy. 6 December 2023. Retrieved 2024-07-06.
  9. ^ "PIK's 2020 Resident Artist: Sheila Hayman". Retrieved 2024-07-06.
  10. ^ "Complexity". YouTube. 26 April 2022.
  11. ^ Lockheart, Florence (24 October 2023). "'Neither an Angry Rebel, Nor a Tragic Victim': Excavating the Legacy of Fanny Mendelssohn". classical-music.uk.
  12. ^ "Fanny Mendelssohn's real-life great-great-great granddaughter turns composer's 'formidable' life into film". Classic FM. 31 October 2023. Retrieved 2024-07-06.
  13. ^ Duchen, Jessica (24 October 2023). "The remarkable life of Fanny, the other Mendelssohn". The Times. Retrieved 2024-07-06.
  14. ^ "Contributor: Patrick Uden". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2024-07-06.
  15. ^ "Sheila Hayman". Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy. Retrieved 2024-07-06.
  16. ^ "Sheila Hayman". Newnham Associates. 20 February 2018. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
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