Miranda Pennell originally studied contemporary dance in New York and Amsterdam, after which she started to explore choreographic ideas through film and video.   While her film work has led away from the specificity of contemporary dance, an interest in the nature of performance remains central to her films.   Pennell’s work looks at the choreography that can be found in the ‘real’ world, using a diverse range of subjects that has included soldiers and a marching band, teenage ice-skaters, stage-fighting, amateur and professional dancers and aspiring drummers.   These films revolve around real people and places.   However their realism is undercut by a formal approach to camera and editing which finds surprising contrasts and contradictions within the worlds explored.   

Pennell's work has been shown in different contexts including independent cinema, gallery, and broadcast. Exhibition in 2008 includes a one-person show at the Centre pour l'Image Contemporain St Gervais Geneve (2008), and retrospective programmes at the at Centre Cultura Contemporanea Barcelona (Sp) and Cinema Nova, Bruxelles (Be). Her films and videos have received many awards, and funding from Arts Council England, Film London’s Artists Film and Video Awards, and the Channel 4 British Documentary Foundation. She lives in London.