We dedicate this episode to the extraordinary urban filmmaker and tireless social-justice advocate, Mark Saunders, who passed away recently at the age of 68. Mark’s powerful contributions to documentary filmmaking, particularly through Despite TV, gave voice to the marginalized and illuminated urgent political and social issues across the globe. His unwavering commitment to storytelling, empathy, and justice left an indelible mark on everyone who knew him—and his legacy will continue to inspire activists, filmmakers, and listeners alike.
Additional Links:
Spectacle Productions | https://www.spectacle.co.uk/
Spectacle Media YouTube Channel | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCphERs0andlM67id8OZMKSg
Spectacle Media Vimeo Channel | https://vimeo.com/spectaclevideos
Spectacle Media Video on Demand Channel | https://vimeo.com/spectaclevideos/vod_pages
Site Index from now-defunct Well London site | http://www.welllondon.org.uk/siteindex.php
Promotional video for Well London | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt4MzGF3zJk
Well London on Spectacle Media website | https://www.spectacle.co.uk/projects_page.php?id=174
Mark Saunders’ potrait at Rebel Video | https://www.rebelvideo.ch/en/portraits/mark-saunders/ Memories of Mark Saunders | https://www.publiclysited.com/memories-of-mark-saunders/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=memories-of-mark-saunders
Guests:
Kevin Sheridan
Kevin Sheridan urban planner, media producer, and community engagement specialist. Trained in Urban and Regional Planning at Oxford Brookes University, he co-founded Anarres Multimedia Co-operative in Hackney in the early 1980s, one of the pioneering community video workshops connected to Channel 4’s alternative media initiatives. Over a career spanning video, print, and web production—as writer, producer, and director—he developed expertise in participatory media and project management.
Later, as Director of Community Engagement at the Institute for Health and Human Development, University of East London, he led large-scale initiatives such as Well London, one of the UK’s most ambitious public health promotion programmes across 20 boroughs. He continues to combine community-based practice with teaching and collaborative media work.
Richard Wolff
Richard Wolff urban scholar and politician, former elected member of the Zurich Government (2013–2022), where he headed the Security Department and later the Department of Civil Engineering. He holds a PhD in participatory urban planning from ETH Zurich and has worked as researcher, lecturer, and consultant on urban strategies, housing, and transport. Co-founder of the International Network for Urban Research and Action (INURA) and of the INURA Zurich Institute, he has combined academic work with activism and policy-making for more than three decades.
Currently, he consults on participatory politics, housing and transport, serves on the board of the Rohn-Salvisberg Foundation for senior citizen housing, and is a member of Omega, a consultative committee for sustainable transport and public space in Zurich.
Laura Colini
Laura Colini urban scholar, currently works as at the University of Venice, Housing in the City cluster, and UNESCO chair on migration. Her work explores housing policy, urban regeneration, and the governance of migration and inequality.
For over two decades, she has worked as policy advisor, and programme expert for the European Commission related urban programmes leading city networks, member of EU Urban Agenda partnerships on topics of urban poverty, housing, homelessness, and migrant inclusion. Activist part of INURA, From Sea to the cities on migration and Social Forum dell’ abitare Italian national movement on the right to housing, co-founder of Tesserae urban social research.
Host:
Nitin Bathla
Nitin Bathla is a transdisciplinary researcher working at the intersection of urbanization, the environment, society, and the arts. He holds a Doctorate in Urban Studies from ETH Zurich and is currently jointly affiliated with ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich. He is the author of the award-winning book Researching Otherwise: Pluriversal Methods for Urban and Landscape Studies and the critically acclaimed documentary Not Just Roads. Nitin serves as an editor for the journal Urban Geography and the Urban Political Podcast, and sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of Urban Political Ecology and Shared Habitats. His current research focuses on the political ecology of nocturnal urbanization and public illumination in Switzerland.