Hilary Powell
Directing
Known For

Two artists in Walthamstow set out to take their street off the grid, kickstarting a solar-powered energy revolution.
Power Station

Follows a community coming together to make their own currency, opening a bank in order to examine how money and debt is created in our economy and to ask important questions about how the system of money creation might be altered in their favour.
Bank Job

How To Re-Establish a Vodka Empire is a feature documentary charting the journey of the film director Dan Edelstyn as he tracks down his long lost Jewish Ukrainian heritage and then attempts to relaunch his great grandfather's once glorious vodka empire. The film consists of a whirlwind journey through European time, space and the great events of the 20th century. The story has it all: revolution and romance, exile and entrepreneurship, and at its heart lies a life changing discovery of a vodka distillery in Ukraine.
How to Re-Establish a Vodka Empire
In 2005 London won the bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games. Optimistic’s story began in Hackney Wick on the edges of what would become this vast regeneration site. ‘The Games’ (2007) was a short film that staged a DIY Olympics amid the sites soon to be erased. It was commissioned by Urbis Manchester for the exhibition Play: Experience the Adventures of Our City and went on to screen widely, winning Audience Award at the East End Film Festival. The film is part of the BFI’s ‘London Calling’ collection.