About Connor Lightbody
Connor Andrew Lightbody is a Scottish photographer, film critic and programmer based in Durham, UK. He has been published by The Skinny, Little White Lies, TakeONE Magazine, The Independent and various other outlets during his career. In 2024, he will be helping program the BATFA-qualifying Cambridge Film Festival and the BIFA-qualifying Kino Fim Festival, Sunderland Shorts and North East International Film Festival, for the second year running.
An avid chess enthusiast, voracious reader and aspiring novelist, his interests have always intersected with various media forms. He is also a formidable pool player, having played for over 20 years and participated in nationwide events, becoming successive national champion with his team in 2012 and 2013.
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When not attending film festivals, at the cinema or practicing on the green baize, his skills learnt from a former chef career get utilised in the kitchen. His double chocolate chunk brownies are an absolute crowd pleaser and his variation on scrambled eggs leave many a mouth watering.
Personal History & Inspiration
I always wanted to write. As a child growing up with ADHD, the stories I watched and read became important gateways to understanding life alongside the neurotypicals. I expressed that youthful angst and emotions on the page - a short story I wrote when I was 6 once had interest expressed by a publisher - and I found myself writing more and more as the years went on. In 2010, I was prompted by my grandma to start writing down how these films made me feel. How they impacted me emotionally, what I liked about them and what I disliked. As head of the SCDA (Scottish Community Drama Association), she loved stories herself and with the knowledge and passion she had on cinema and theatre, she attempted to broaden my cinematic horizons. I found myself at the mercy of the multiplex as a teenager, absorbing any and every movie that played. I wanted to learn the cinematic languages my grandma spoke about, to experience the joy and cathartic sadness that came with cinema.
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All through my career as a chef, I continued my journey into cinema. The more films I watched, the more I felt I grasped a wee bit more about the framework of society. I took time off work to go to Edinburgh Film Festival in 2016, 2017 and 2019, and scheduled my life around the cinema listings. She gave me a chance at my first byline with Edinburgh Evening News, which unfortunately fell through - a much needed learning curve at the time!
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Her passing in September '19 and the epiphany that life is fleeting gave me the motivation and financial freedom to finally do something I had only dreamed of. I traveled Europe, visiting France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and Luxembourg on my way to the oldest film festival in the world:Venice Film Festival
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