"What feels like ages ago, you called me, Nick.

You were excited about a film you were making, about a cyclist, about a journey that would end in Rwanda. Not long after, you called from Italy, deep into a short about a young migrant. A few weeks later, you rang again, this time from the UK, about to walk straight into the BBC and tell them you were making a film about young dancers in Nairobi. That would become Street Dreams.

Those calls, the meetings, so many of them gave birth to our joke, our badge of honour: IFM. International Filmmakers. It became our greeting, our shorthand for the dream that our work could speak for itself, no matter where we came from. It was a greeting we shared the last time we saw each other in person, and it still makes me smile through the ache.

We made beautiful films together. Softie. Free Money, Victoria. You were a collaborator’s dream. We talked about work almost exclusively, sometimes for hours. That was a love language: ideas, images, stories, what was next.
You lived creatively, fully, ferociously. No matter what was thrown at you, you carried the scars forward (laughing, almost always) and still aimed higher. It wasn’t easy. Even when it felt impossible, you kept going. Your films proved it: wide, dynamic, restless, alive.

It’s still surreal that you’re gone. But I know you know how deeply you touched us. Your creativity, your ambition, your energy, they’re still here, moving through the work, through us.

Thank you for honoring us with your vision, your trust, your friendship.

Here’s to what we already made, and to what is still on its way.