Franny Armstrong is touring

Date 16th Jul 2003
Submitted by Anonymous on 16 July 2003 - 11:00pm

Students get your pens ready, Spanner Films' director Franny Armstrong is touring US/Canadian colleges this autumn (I mean, fall). Would you like to bring her to your university?

 

 About Franny Armstrong

  Franny

 From the tender age of 4, Franny Armstrong knew she was going to be a rock drummer. And indeed she was. Until, at the age of 23, she read about a trial in which the fast food giants were suing a gardener and postman for libel. So she sadly put down the drumsticks and picked up a video camera. Three years later, in August 1997, Franny's first documentary, 'McLibel', was released to great critical acclaim.

McLibel's infamy quickly grew after the film was pulled by lawyers at both the BBC and Channel 4. Although never broadcast in the UK, it has now been watched by an estimated 18 million viewers - on eight mainstream TV channels worldwide, on countless cable & satellite channels, Spanner's website (1500 people per month), at film festivals, at schools and colleges, and at community screenings around the world; from Peru to Slovenia, China to Turkey.

Franny's second major documentary, 'Drowned Out', (2002) follows the fight against the Narmada Dam in India. She filmed it over three years, battling against illness, rain, solar battery chargers, six language barriers and police arrests. The 75 minute film was runner-up for Best Documentary at the British Independendt Film Awards, the OneWorld Media awards ("a masterfully crafted study of a stand-off between the powerless and the powerful") and the San Francisco International Film Festival ("a film of enormous heart, grit and insight that is both taut political essay and enormously moving plea".). It too has been broadcast round the world and the recent DVD version was reviewed as "Hunt it out, spread the word, and when, in a few years time, Franny Armstrong is being discussed as one of the key documentary film-makers of our generation, you can say you were in there at the start." (DVD Insider).

Franny's films are produced through Spanner Films, the independent TV production company, based in London, which she founded in 1999. Working entirely outside the mainstream TV industry, her films have now been seen by a total of 49 million people.

Both McLibel (the new, feature version) and Drowned Out are being released theatrically in the USA in April 2005.

For awards, film festivals and press reviews about these films see here

Franny has spoken at more than 80 film festivals, seminars and colleges around the world. She has been interviewed for TV news and chatshows (inc BBC and ABC Australia) and written articles for books, newspapers and magazines (inc The Guardian).

Franny Armstrong filmography 

McLibel, 1995-2005. 85 mins
Director / Producer / Camera.
Filmed over ten years by first-time Director Franny Armstrong, McLibel is the David and Goliath story of the postman and gardener who took on McDonald's. And won. Broadcast in the ‘Storyville’ strand on BBC4 and BBC2, released theatrically in the USA and on DVD worldwide.
"The sort of film Michael Moore probably thinks he makes." - The Sunday Times

The Dammed, 2003. 45 mins
Director / Camera.
Updated version of Drowned Out commissioned and broadcast by PBS (USA).

Drowned Out, 1999-2002. 75 mins
Director / Producer / Camera.
An Indian family choose to stay at home and drown rather than make way for the Narmada Dam. Shot over three years in six languages. No commission, no Hindi, no electricity. 14 million viewers so far.
“Angry, compassionate, disturbing and yet empowering” - Time Out.
"Documentaries rarely, if ever, come better than this” - Bermuda Royal Gazette.

Baked Alaska, 2002. 26 mins
Director / Camera/ Editor.
America’s richest state is warming ten times faster than the rest of the world. So why does Bush want to drill for more oil under the ice? Shot by two person crew during intense five weeks round Alaska. Sold to TV in 6 countries (not UK) and BBC World.

A Racist Force, 2000. 15 mins
Director / Camera/ Editor.
One year after the British police were branded “institutionally racist”, we ask: has anything changed? Sold to magazine TV shows in Europe.

Gosney In China, 1999, 60 mins
Director / Camera / Editor.
Birdwatching travellogue shot on DV in China for the Red, Green & Blue Co.

McLibel: Two Worlds Collide, 1995-1997. 52 mins
Director / Producer.
The inside story of the postman and the gardener who took on the McDonald’s Corporation. Definitive 60-min documentary about McDonald’s libel trial. Filmed over three years. Includes court reconstructions directed by Ken Loach. BBC1 and Ch 4 transmissions stopped by lawyers. Sold to 5 countries and released theatrically in Australia.
“Dramatic, inspiring, hard-hitting and heart-warming” - New Internationalist

SoundBites, 1995
Director / Writer.
Cookery video made for Vegan Society starring poet Benjamin Zephaniah and presenter Wendy Turner.

Truth or Dairy, 1993-1994
Director / Writer.
Award-winning promo video made for Vegan Society, starring poet Benjamin Zephaniah.