In 2019, economist, activist, and parliamentary candidate Faiza Shaheen asked me to create her main General Election campaign film for the Chingford and Wood Green constituency. The result was a two-to-three minute social media film that became one of the most widely seen parliamentary campaign films in UK electoral history — achieving 3 million views on Twitter alone and a retweet from Stormzy.
I directed, shot, and edited the film in full.
The Brief
Faiza Shaheen needed a campaign film that could capture who she was, what she stood for, and why the people of Chingford and Woodford Green should vote for her, in under three minutes, on social media. It needed to be emotionally compelling, visually strong, and politically sharp. It also needed to work for an audience far beyond the constituency itself.
The Approach
This is the kind of brief I find most exciting: a candidate with a genuine story to tell, a community worth fighting for, and an audience hungry for something real. I worked with Faiza from script to screen – helping shape the narrative, directing the shoot, and editing the final film. The goal was always to make something that would ‘wow the audience’ as much as it advanced her campaign objectives.
The film went well beyond its original purpose. Stormzy’s retweet brought it to an entirely new audience, demonstrating that genuinely good political filmmaking doesn’t stay within political bubbles.
Results
- 3 million views on Twitter
- Millions more across all social media platforms
- Retweeted by Stormzy
- One of the most-seen independent parliamentary campaign films in UK history
“Matt is always my first call when I need to do a video on a particular issue or campaign. He’s excellent at his job, and a joy to work with. From helping with the script to editing material, I’ve seen him pull together excellent short films again and again. One video we did together was watched over a million times, and even retweeted by Stormzy. I’m always trying to find ways to bring Matt into the projects and campaigns I’m working on, because I know he’ll produce work that will both further my objectives and wow our audiences.” – Faiza Shaheen, Economist and Independent Parliamentary Candidate
Expertise
Campaign filmmaking at this level is about far more than production quality. It’s about understanding a candidate, their community, and the political moment, and translating that into something that moves people. This film is one I’m enormously proud of: evidence that a freelance filmmaker working with a progressive independent candidate can create content that rivals anything produced by major party machines.
Faiza has described me as her ‘first call’ whenever she needs video content and I consider her a lifelong friend— a level of ongoing trust that I think speaks for itself.