H Club London Announces H Foundation Emerging Creatives 2019 Cohort

Today, h Club London (formerly The Hospital Club) has announced the h Foundation Emerging Creatives 2019 cohort. The programme is designed for talented 21-35-year-olds who are looking to progress their career in the arts. The creatives include British-Lebanese filmmaker, Celine Cotran, London-based creative director, visual producer and filmmaker Souvid Datta, designer Harry Grundy, composer and multi-instrumentalist Stefano Fasce and Danish theatre director, Camilla Gürtler.

Launched in 2014, the h Foundation was created to promote diversity across the creative industries by providing access opportunities into creative disciplines for underrepresented young people. Emerging Creatives is the Foundation's flagship programme that aims to discover, nurture and showcase the next generation of creative leaders in the UK. Each year the scheme works with five creatives (representing music, fashion, film, art and design and theatre and performance) over the course of twelve months, to help them produce original work and get it in front of the right audiences. The programme gives winners the space and support they need to grow as an artist, while gaining the knowledge, skills and contacts to make a business of their talents. h Club host individual showcases for each of the creatives throughout the programme.

The Emerging Creatives Cohort Each Receive:

• A £3,000 grant towards a creative project
• One year's complimentary club membership
• A professional coach
• An industry mentor
• Access to a series of masterclasses
• Opportunities to showcase their work within the creative industries

Hannah Hedges, h Foundation said:

"We are incredibly proud to be working with this year's talented cohort of Emerging Creatives. All to often talented young people go unrecognised as they are not given the opportunity to progress their career. We hope to give this year's programme the chance to reach their full potential with the support and guidance of an experience group of mentors and professional coaches."

Celine Cotran is a British-Lebanese filmmaker with a passion for telling female-driven stories that touch on the fantastical and the absurd. After completing a BA in French and Russian Literature at the University of Oxford, Celine graduated with a Distinction from the London Film School, where she was mentored by Academy award-winning producer David Parfitt (Shakespeare in Love, My Week with Marilyn). Her graduation film, After Eights, has been nominated in several film festivals worldwide, including the BAFTA Qualifying Carmarthen Bay Film Festival for Best Comedy Short. Her first professional short The Time Tree, co-starring Frances Tomelty and Daisy Waterstone, was adapted from the children's novel of the same name by Enid Richemont. It was produced in association with the Academy award-winning production company Trademark Films, and was a grant recipient of the Doha Film Institute 2017 Fall Grants Programme. It had its world premiere at the Oscar Qualifying Sarajevo Film Festival 2018, and has since screened at Cinekid Film Festival, the largest children's film festival in the world, with an upcoming screening at the Oscar Qualifying RiverRun FF in April 2019. Her most recent film, Layla, has just completed post production. It stars Wafa Al Shalati, a refugee from Syria, in her first role. She is also in post-production on a feature-length documentary about refugees in London, exploring both the joys and difficulties of beginning a new life from nothing. Both pieces do so much to break down stereotypes, and as a Middle Eastern filmmaker, this is a project that is incredibly close to her heart.

Celine Cotran said:

"I am beyond thrilled to be part of a programme that does so much to help young creatives. I know this will be a transformative year, and I am incredibly excited to begin my journey as this year's Film Emerging Creative."

Souvid Datta is a London-based creative director, visuals producer and filmmaker with six years experience developing stories and multimedia content for the editorial, news, advertising and commercial sectors. After completing a degree in International Relations, Law and Conflict Studies at UCL, he went on to produce commissioned and personal projects in over 50 countries with clients including Google, National Geographic Magazine, The New York Times, Channel 4, BBC Studios, TIME and The Guardian. Through narrative storytelling and visual-led investigations, Souvid's work tackles under-reported contemporary issues through the lens of empowering, human-led stories.

Souvid Datta said:

"I'm thrilled to have been selected alongside such incredible and diverse talents! It's so rare to find a program that provides not only a central-London space, but hands-on coaching and financial resources to pursue passion projects, and rarer still to find one that focuses on investing in your personal creative growth above all else. I'm really excited to make the most of it, and to build my body of professional work as well as my creative network with h Club's generous support."

Harry Grundy's studio practice seeks playful answers to familiar questions. By applying an idea-centric attitude to furniture, architecture, visual art, storytelling and performance, his work asks you to look again at the solemn and familiar moments in life.

Harry Grundy said:

"At this unpredictable, embryonic stage of my career it means an awful lot to be supported by such a wonderful scheme, put together by people with a genuine interest in the growth of my work."

Stefano Fasce is a composer and multi-instrumentalist, devoted to story-telling through music. Graduated from the National Film and Television School in 2018, his recent credits includes a 5-part series for the History Channel ("Al Murray: Why Does Everyone Hate The English?") and "Dead Birds" which was nominated for a Student Academy Award and won both the Student Jury Prize and Audience Award at the Poitiers Film Festival. His concert pieces have recently been performed in Brussels and Singapore.

Parallel to his film music career, Stefano is working on his debut album that aims to blur the line between orchestral and electronic music.

Stefano Fasce said:

"I'm delighted to have been selected as an Emerging Composer and I can't wait to get stuck into the programme and ensure I make the most out of this fantastic opportunity."

Camilla Gürtler is the artistic director of Cut the Cord, a theatre company focusing on bringing new Scandinavian and Nordic plays to the UK. Cut the Cord is known for its visual and physical productions and their focus on social change through theatre and what it means to be human. Cut the Cord is currently curating a Nordic Festival in London in 2020.

She trained at Drama Centre London and StoneCrabs Theatre's Young Directors' Programme, and was awarded a Judges Commendation in Directing for Kinder K at The National Student Drama Festival 2018.

In addition to directing, Camilla works as a practitioner with years of experience in outreach work in the UK and abroad, including the Almeida Theatre, Drama Centre London, Central Saint Martins, Omnibus Theatre, Poplar Union and The Space. She also works as a translator and reader and recently translated and read for the Royal Court's International Residency 2019.

Directing credits include:

I Run (Vault Festival/Platform Theatre), Endless Second (Theatre503), Beyond the Blue (Camden People's Theatre/Theatre Royal Stratford East/Old Vic Lab 17), Kinder K (The National Student Drama Festival/Bunker Theatre), Mydidae (Wimbledon College of Arts), When Mr. Excavator Came and Ate All the Trees, The Monkeys and Hamster-Beavers Had a Battle (Omnibus Theatre), The Nightingale and the Rose (Etcetera) and An Incident at the Border (The Albany).

Camilla Gürtler said:

"I'm so excited to be named Emerging Creative with a place as vibrant as the h Club. Being an artist can feel very isolating, so having a base and a support network for a year is an invaluable opportunity. I'm at the point of my career where things are starting to move really fast, so being part of a network that can support me in developing my work as a theatre director into something sustainable will be a game-changer for me. Finding a place that supports you to this extend is rare so I cannot wait to see what this year will open up for me!"

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