Jo is a film industry professional with more than 20 years experience in cinema exhibition. She was Senior Programmer and Arts Manager at Picturehouse Cinemas (till 2018) where she programmed for Picturehouse’s own cinemas and a diverse range of clients, and also managed the contract side of the business for several years. Always committed to the importance of the most independent films and moving image work, she developed programme strands to make these available more widely across Picturehouse, and sustained a successful long term collaboration with the Serpentine Gallery.
Jo programmed the ICA cinema from 2012 to 2017 where she raised audience figures significantly and collaborated with curatorial collective A Nos Amours in the presentation of an important two year full retrospective of the work of Chantal Akerman. She has also worked with filmmaker Alex Reuben on his Newsreel 1 (2011), Gingerella (RockaFela) (2018) and other upcoming projects, and produced a short film with director Paul Sng.
Since returning to her native Scotland in 2018, Jo has worked as consultant for IndieCinema, for LUX and Andrea Zimmerman on the release of Erase and Forget (the first artists feature film released into cinemas by LUX) and on The Deathless Woman by Roz Mortimer, while developing producing and other skills.
She has a BA in Fine Art from Glasgow School of Art, MA in Photographic Studies from Westminster University, BSc in Economics and Maths from Open University and is a Trustee of the Kent Film Foundation.