Lizzie Gillett

Producer
crew - Lizzie Gillett
Location:
Chained to desk in Camden Town
Film:
The Age of Stupid
Time on the job:
5
Jet, jeep, bus or bike:
Bike. Greatest timesaver known to humanity.
Original connection:
Stalked Franny on internet
Memorable moment:
Best moments have been finding the main characters
Scared of:
Health & Safety regulations ruining our premiere
Guilty of:
Drunken climate change rants at parties

Biography:

Lizzie Gillett is the producer of the climate change blockbuster, The Age of Stupid. The film was Number One at the UK box office, and screened on TV, DVD and in cinemas around the world. Lizzie managed 105 people in six countries and alongside the film’s director Franny Armstrong she pioneered and implemented the enormously successful "crowd-funding" scheme raising £900,000 from 300+ people. She produced Stupid’s Global Premiere, featuring Kofi Annan and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. The event, which broadcast live from downtown Manhattan, was seen by one million people in 63 countries.

She led the 10:10 campaign’s global efforts, succeeding in getting self-funded 10:10 campaigns going in 42 countries. She spent eighteen months in New York working for Peter Gabriel’s human rights organization, WITNESS, before returning to the UK to work with her longtime collaborator Franny Armstrong. 

Lizzie was featured by Harpers Bazaar magazine as a “21st century heroine”, one of twenty “exceptional women changing the world for the better through the work they do" and by Vogue as one of the UK’s leading “female eco-warriors”. She was named “European Green Trailblazer of the year” at industry heavyweight event, Mipcom, and awarded the prize in Cannes.

She’s currently producing a TV drama series, Undercovers, based on the incredible true story of undercover police officers who infiltrated British activist groups over the last 50 years... and the women who unwittingly had long-term relationships and even children with these spies.  Undercovers is being written by Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire, The Full Monty) and Alice Nutter (The Mill, The Street, The Accused) and exec produced by Ken Loach's producer of 30 years, Tony Garnett (Kes, Cathy Come Home), together with John Battsek (double Oscar winner for One Day In September and Searching For Sugarman).   

-> Watch the Making Of documentary which follows Lizzie's five-year journey making and distributing The Age of Stupid here

-> Read Lizzie's list: "44 Craziest Things I did for the film"

-> Lizzie's IMDB page

-> Lizzie on Twitter: @lizziegillett

AGE OF STUPID DIARY ENTRIES
Lizzie goes home to New Zealand
Lizzie and Franny's one argument ever (well nearly)
The cycle protest fails to beat the tireless producer
Filming a winning doc requires sacrifice 
A near death experience in New Orleans


AGE OF STUPID VIDEOS

Sound testing gone haywire
Lizzie cracks in Jordan
Hostage negotiations 
The hostile training course for Nigeria


PICTURES - click on thumbnails for bigger version

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stuff done:

  • McLibel, 2005, 85 mins, Assistant Producer: Updated and extended version of McLibel released theatrically in the US, UK, Austria. Broadcast on BBC4 and BBC2 in 2005. Has also sold to 33 TV stations around the world.
  • The Dammed, 2003, 70 mins, Assistant Producer: Shorter, updated Drowned Out, made for PBS and sold worldwide.
  • Draft Bill, 2004, 30 mins, Director / Producer: A Critical Look at the Mental Health Bill.

Quotes:

  • DVD Outsider: Very Helpful