University of Westminster Film and Television Production BA Honours alumnus David Thompson has won a BAFTA for best Single Documentary for his work on Ellie Simmonds: Finding My Secret Family.
The documentary reveals that the Paralympian is adopted and follows her journey to find her biological family. Simmonds is often seen in the pool winning medals for Team GB, collecting five Paralympic gold medals and eight World Championship gold medals in her career, but the documentary shows a whole new side of the athlete as she embarks on the emotional road to be reunited with her birth mother.
David Thompson was the Editor working on the documentary and joined the celebrations on stage at the BAFTAs on 12 May.
The documentary was up against a variety of emotive shows including David Holmes: The Boy who Lived, Hatton and V Jeran Tomic: The Spider-man of Paris.
During her acceptance speech Simmonds said: “Fostering and adopting is incredible and if you want to adopt, adopt people with different disabilities, there are so many people out there that need adoption and need love and need families.”
Ellie Simmonds/Photo Credit: Flicker Productions
On the win Thompson said: “It felt great. I wasn’t expecting it at all so it all felt surreal to actually win it. We were all in a bit of a daze. We all slowly walked down to the stage and it was all a bit dream-like to be honest.”
About the documentary he added: “As soon as I heard about this one it really felt like it would resonate with a lot of people. I like anything that is very specific but also very universal. It’s specific because she talks about being a Paralympian and having dwarfism, which are things so particular to her, but at the same time highlights the idea of being rejected for something that you just cannot change about yourself and that is something that we can all feel about similar aspects of our lives and that really resonates with me. Going forward this is what I am looking for – stories that really tap into something about us all.”
This documentary directly contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10: Reduced Inequalities as it sends the message to offer support to all who need it to help every individual thrive. Since 2019, the University of Westminster has used the SDGs holistically to frame strategic decisions to help students and colleagues fulfil their potential and contribute to a more sustainable, equitable and healthier society.
Find out more about Film and Television courses at the University of Westminster.
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