Originally screened at EIFF as Emma & Ben BBC2 are showing Can We Get Married as part of their Wonderland season. The film's Editor Mikael Svartdahl was also a 2009 Trailblazer.

Vanessa studied Art at Brighton College of Technology and Anthropology at University College London. In 2005 she attended the Summerdocs course at the NFTS where she made her first documentary, Chasing Bev. With this film she applied to do the documentary directing MA at the NFTS which she completed earlier this year.

Since Can We Get Married, Vanessa has made Soldier Girls: On the Road to Afghanistan for Channel 4’s First Cut, a documentary about women training to become officers at Sandhurst, which broadcast in March 2009. Sarah Dempster in The Guardian wrote, “contemplative and balanced, Vanessa Stockley's splendid film captures the complexity of the ‘pre-frontline army lady’ vibe, while allowing its subjects to be simultaneously wise, girly, naive and insightful.”

Can We Get Married is the story of Emma Bishop and Ben Marshall who are thinking of getting married. But for them, it is not entirely straightforward.

Emma and Ben both have Down's syndrome and are residents of a supported-living community in Devon, where they have an active social life and part-time jobs. They live in a small house with their friend Cy Clench, who also has Down's syndrome. If Emma and Ben were to get married, it could mean a completely different way of living.

Through the high spirits of their dance nights to the tired conversations at the end of their working days, this film follows Emma and Ben as they decide whether married life would be an enormous stress they could do without, or the romantic dream they always imagined. 

Don't miss Can We Get Married on BBC2 at 21:50 on Thursday 19 November 2009. Regional programming may differ - please check local listings for further details.