When you commission with us, it has social impact and social value attached to it.”
MEDIA
Work – ThroughFilm recently filmed Cultivate Tees Valley group members at work in the gardens and polytunnels adjoining St Michael and All Angels Church in Norton.
Giving back – Sian Davison( left) and Judy Linsley formed ThroughFilm CIC on a unique corporate social responsibilitybased model.
When you commission with us, it has social impact and social value attached to it.”
time donated through their corporate commissions.
That equates to 28 film projects enabling grassroots organisations to amplify their voice and communicate their needs, stories and struggles.
One of ThroughFilm’ s strengths, they agree, is taking time to chat with their subjects and build up a rapport.
But why not just make more money by being a conventional video production company?
Sian smiles:“ Because we need to be fulfilled by the work that we do. And for us, that’ s being with communities and getting to tell stories that wouldn’ t be told otherwise.”
Judy adds:“ When you’ re making films, you can sit down with someone who’ s had lived experience of something terrible or amazing. Sometimes you can almost see their shoulders drop, just from the relief of being able to talk about it. And we love that – we’ ve cried on shoots, we’ ve laughed on shoots.”
Corporate and public sector clients so far have included NHS trusts, Middlesbrough and Hartlepool councils, Woodsmith Foundation and The Naked Pharmacy.
And ThroughFilm is no stranger to awards ceremonies, having been shortlisted for several prestigious prizes and last year picking up the Best New Business Title at the 2024 Tees
Businesswomen Awards – the very awards, organised by Tees Business, that their films showcasing those shortlisted were shown at in 2025.
On the community side of things, films for groups such as Durham Area Youth, lived experience charity Red Balloons, neonatal charity Leo’ s and environmental group Cultivate Tees Valley are among several created by ThroughFilm’ s compassionate brand of film-making.
Funding is now also being sought to expand the workshop side of their business.
Sian explained:“ With Durham Area Youth, we did our first-ever workshop.
“ The young people wanted to do a film around mental health, so they fed into making a campaign film around suicide prevention.
“ So, workshops are another thing we do – we want to teach people how to advocate using film and storytelling which, in turn, gives them life skills.
“ We can apply ourselves to any type of storytelling. But the compassion and empathy we use in community groups, we carry through to our corporate work, because that’ s what makes good storytellers – being able to connect with people’ s messages.”
We’ re chatting at St Michael and All Angels Church in Norton, where they are filming Cultivate Tees Valley group members at work in the gardens and
polytunnels adjoining the building.
Sian, 35, is a Londoner who, after meeting her Teessider husband on a video shoot in Brazil, has lived locally since 2016. Camping, film editing and being with her family are her happy places.
Judy, 29 – full name Judyta – is originally from Poland, moved to the UK in 2005 and lived in Selby, North Yorkshire, until studying at Teesside University in 2014. She enjoys reading and REALLY loves dogs!
And as they enthuse about Teesside, their film-making and their communityfocused business model, their chemistry is clear.
Sian said:“ We’ re like yin and yang. We get on great but we’ re also able to be honest with each other and have tough conversations.
“ But we’ re quite mature about how we handle those and understand that we’ re both humans at the end of the day.”
Judy agrees, adding:“ I’ ll tend to want to just press‘ go’ on things, whereas Sian’ s more of a‘ prepper’ – but we have the same heart.”
And the heart of ThroughFilm remains an earnest desire to make high-quality, eye-catching and engaging films that make positive changes to people’ s lives.
Visit throughfilm. org
The voice of business in the Tees region | 55