Together with Kate Blewett, Bongo Films is made up of a dedicated team of experienced TV and media professionals with years of documentary, advocacy and behaviour change drama film-making experience. The management team also specialises in finding film finance and has many years experience of running and marketing registered charities.

 

 

Bob Maddams

Bob is a writer-director who specialises in developing world film-making. He spent 8 years working at Gem TV, a film school in Ethiopia that trained ex-street kids to become community film-makers. Gem TV made educational and documentary films for many of the international NGOs working in the country such as Oxfam, Unicef, UNDP, DKT and Womankind. These films addressed a range of issues including women and girls’ education and development, HIV/AIDS, FGM and other harmful traditional practices. During this period Gem TV pioneered behavioural change drama film-making where films acted as a catalyst for social change. In 2012, Gem TV received the Special Award at the One World Media Awards in London sponsored by the Guardian and Channel 4 for…” an outstanding project working on the ground in the developing world where media activity has made a real impact on people’s lives”.

Previously Bob directed documentaries for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in the Inside Britain series and as a director of TV commercials in the advertising industry.

 

Jon Exton

Jon is a Film Producer and Corporate Finance Consultant based in the City of London where he specialises in raising finance for films and documentaries as well as sourcing venture and other forms of capital for developing businesses.

Jon is unusual for a financial man in that he is equally at home in the Square Mile as he is getting his hands dirty on a project in the developing world.He is a trustee of a number of charities both in the UK and the developing world including Children of Uganda (UK) in Uganda and was a Trustee of COCOA (Care Of China’s Orphaned And Abandoned). This gives Jon a rare insight into the problems and challenges that face many aid agencies NGOs working in the developing world.

A qualified accountant and banker, and with an MBA from the University of British Columbia, Jon’s career background incorporates banking, film financing and project finance.

Lily Vetch

Lily is a film-maker, photographer and producer working across the fashion, music and documentary industry.

In 2019, Lily partnered with the British-Bengali fashion designer, Rahemur Rahman, to co-direct and co-produce their first feature documentary, BODY OF MY OWN, about the Hijras (Trans) community in Dhaka, Bangladesh. BODY OF MY OWN is a haunting and inspiring exploration of gender and identity in Bangladesh and India, at a moment in time when social justice is threatened by a global pandemic and increasingly polarised politics in the region.

Lily continues to work with a number of charities which focus on human rights issues.

 

Dawn Perry

Marketing Consultant

Dawn is a Marketing Consultant specialising in the film and media sector.

Dawn started her career in advertising, working for Saatchi & Saatchi in London, and then Sydney, Australia where she also worked with local independent agencies and McCann-Erickson – in both regional and global roles. While in Australia, she became actively involved in all aspects of commercial film production, which she loved.

Now back in the UK, Dawn has been working in a marketing consultancy role with a number of different companies. For over 3 years she worked with YouBloom, an unsigned artist, live and online discovery and development program, supporting emerging artists of tomorrow. Working with the management team in LA, she helped to get the program established and organised their offline LIVE music and awards program in London. She is also a marketing consultant with a UK registered charity, Children of Uganda (UK).

In 2013 she was involved with the marketing of MXR Productions and now works with Bongo Films on a consultancy basis.