About
Daisy-May Hudson is a BAFTA Breakthrough filmmaker, facilitator and consultant whose work bridges storytelling, lived experience, trauma-informed practice and cultural change.
She began her filmmaking career unconventionally after filming her and her family’s experiences of homelessness whilst living in a hostel in 2013. She didn’t go to film school and instead developed her approach through filming everyday life around her for over a year—experiencing first-hand the transformative power of storytelling, not only in her own life, but for others too.
Her debut feature documentary HALF WAY was nominated for both BIFA and Grierson Awards for Best Documentary. Through making the film, Daisy-May experienced how storytelling could transform pain into power and began developing the foundations of the approach she is now known for: storytelling rooted in care, collaboration, dignity and emotional truth.
The film deeply connected with audiences and became the first of three feature films Daisy-May would later take to Parliament because of their social and political impact. HALF WAY was also used as official evidence within a government homelessness enquiry.
Following the critical acclaim of HALF WAY, Daisy-May was awarded BAFTA Breakthrough where she met Parkville Pictures and began developing her first scripted feature LOLLIPOP with BBC and BFI—a film created with and about the power of sisterhood and our capacity for joy even in the hardest times.
Much of the cast came from the lived experience the film depicts, making the process itself an act of collaboration, healing and creative alchemy. During the making of LOLLIPOP, Daisy-May also co-directed her second feature documentary HOLLOWAY, exploring similar themes around women, trauma and transformation.
HOLLOWAY won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the London Film Festival and premiered internationally at Hot Docs in Toronto. It later received a BIFA nomination for Best Documentary. Posy Sterling won BIFA Breakthrough Performance for her role in LOLLIPOP and was nominated for BAFTA Rising Star.
Across both documentary and fiction, Daisy-May’s work is known for telling raw, honest stories with a whole lot of heart—ensuring love, integrity and care for those involved are the foundation of the process both on and off screen.
Over the past decade, she has developed and deepened her own ways of working with lived experience safely, ethically and collaboratively. She is passionate about changing the culture of filmmaking to become more trauma-informed, deeply felt and rooted in integrity.
For Daisy-May, the process is just as important as what is created.
Both HOLLOWAY and LOLLIPOP were trauma-informed productions. This means creating spaces where people can be held in safety, shared vulnerability, connection and dignity throughout the storytelling process.
Daisy-May believes that all things and all life are sacred—and therefore filmmaking can and should be a sacred practice too.
Across all three films, Daisy-May’s work has resonated deeply not only with people with lived experience, but also with workers and professionals within the systems the films explore—including judges, criminal justice experts, social workers, frontline workers and policymakers.
The films continue to create impact long after release through community screenings, training spaces, reflection days and conversations designed to support cultural and systemic change. Her work has been screened with councillors championing policy change, judges reflecting on trauma-informed practice, and social workers using the films as part of training and reflective spaces. LOLLIPOP and HOLLOWAY are also continuing to expand their outreach through planned screenings within prison settings.
Her films are grown from genuine community and continue building connection, conversation and impact beyond the screen—creating spaces where people feel seen, understood and less alone in their experiences.
This ongoing relationship between storytelling, community and social change is also at the heart of the CIC Daisy-May is now developing: creating workshops, circles, mentorship and creative spaces that expand the themes and conversations within the films to support deeper cultural transformation.
Alongside filmmaking, Daisy-May works as a consultant, facilitator and mentor with production companies, NGOs, broadcasters, institutions and creatives who want to work with lived experience in ways that are ethical, embodied and deeply impactful.
She supports projects, productions and creative processes to become safer, more collaborative and more emotionally intelligent—helping shape storytelling processes that allow people to feel safe enough to tell the truth.
Alongside over a decade of filmmaking experience, Daisy-May has also been on her own profound healing journey recovering from CPTSD and uses this deep embodied wisdom to hold others in safety and compassion. Her work is informed by training in somatic trauma work, emotional processing, systemic healing practices, sacred facilitation and energy work, which she weaves into every part of her practice—whether through filmmaking, consultancy, retreats, workshops, mentorship, or Films From The Hearth Club, her creative incubator for storytellers working from lived experience.
Her training includes:
3 Year Accredited Advanced Shamanic Practitioner Training
Inner Dance Facilitation Training
Family Constellations Facilitation Training
Sacred Spaces Facilitation Training
Somatic Attachment Therapy Certification
Embodied Resilience Mastery Practitioner for Trauma
At the heart of everything Daisy-May does is a belief that storytelling can become medicine.
That when our stories are held properly—with safety, love, integrity and care—they have the power not only to transform our own lives, but to create deeper connection, meaningful cultural change and a more compassionate world.
At the heart of everything Daisy-May does is a belief that storytelling when done correctly, can be medicine for ourselves and others. That when our stories are held properly, with safety, love, integrity and care—they have the power not only to transform our own lives, but to create deeper connection, meaningful cultural change and a more compassionate world. It’s about the conversations sparked, the communities formed, the healing and connection created, and the ways stories can help us reimagine both ourselves and the systems we live within.