Director / DOP / Water Cinematographer.
Based between the UK and Sweden, with an EU passport.
charliekeymedia@gmail.com
+44 (0) 7799688580
I'm a self-shooting director and DOP working across documentary and narrative.
I discovered the magic of filmmaking young, filming rattlesnakes striking at 1000 frames a second, though it didn’t occur to me then that it could become my career. Life took me elsewhere first, from cattle ranching to a degree in marine biology, and it was later, while studying otters in Spain, that I picked up a camera again and found that filmmaking had space for everything that pulled at me.
I'm most drawn to remote and demanding environments, from Arctic expeditions to heavy surf and underwater shoots, often directing and shooting single-handed in challenging conditions. My interests lie equally in the people who live in these places and in the landscapes themselves, in the small details, and in the trust that lets a story be told honestly.
I bring the same care to my commercial and brand work, and have collaborated with Dior, Ffern, Speedo, EasyJet, Next, Spy Optics, Ted Baker, Environment Agency, the Textile Exchange and Nike. My narrative short as a DOP, Circle Hook, has screened at festivals from New York to Cornwall, and my short documentary El Rocío, co-directed with Leon Foggitt, won Gold at the Creative Circle Awards and is a finalist at the AOP Awards.
Select Press:
Gold Winner - Short Film Award, Documentary, Creative Circle Awards: El Rocío: The Faith and the Feeling, 2026.
Official Selection - El Paso Film Festival: El Rocío: The Faith and the Feeling, 2026.
Official Selection - Motion, AOP Awards: El Rocío: The Faith and the Feeling, 2026.
Best of the West - Runner Up, Cornwall Film Festival: ‘Circle Hook’, 2025
Best Environmental Film, Banff Film Festival: ‘The Eagle With The Sunlit Eye’, 2023 (Charlie was camera operator and spent 10 days in a hide, in Scotland, filming white tailed eagles)
People’s Choice Award, Kendal Mountain Festival: ‘The Eagle With The Sunlit Eye’, 2023
Official Selection, London Surf Film Festival: ‘It's Still Sunny in Winter’, 2023
Filming snakes strike at 1000fps a wee while ago.