Emma Critchley, HOLD
UK
Director: Emma Critchley
Choreographers: Maya Carroll & Liam Francis with Emma Critchley
Musicians: Zeina Nasr & Stefan Smith
Performers: Maya Carroll & Liam Francis
About HOLD (2026)
HOLD takes JG Ballard’s The Drowned World as its starting point. In the film we witness two strangers navigate a submerged landscape, whilst sharing a remnant from a world lost.
This film was commissioned and produced by Sadler's Wells Digital Stage & Studio, London.
About Emma Critchley
Emma Critchley is a director based in the UK. Her films poetically present complex narratives from archival material, scientific research and constructed scenes to explore the ocean as an ecological, political and philosophical space. Over more than two decades, Emma has developed a distinctive body of work that sits at the intersection of art, documentary and activism. Her films and expanded installations have been shown at Tate St Ives, Tate Modern, Science Gallery London, the Barbican, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, The Royal Academy, The Australian Centre of Photography and the ICA Singapore and Aesthetica Film Festival. She has also presented and co-produced programmes for Radio 4. Her filmmaking is shaped by long-term collaborations with the communities most affected by the environmental issues at the heart of her films, and informed by research with organisations such as the National Oceanography Centre, the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, and the British Antarctic Survey.