NEWS ARCHIVE
June 2008
Our highlight this month was the Films For Change weekend workshop run by film outreach über-experts Robert West and Judith Helfand from Working Films (workingfilms.org). A group of us making social change documentaries spent the weekend discussing our projects and working on outreach plans. The workshop was a total inspiration and we are looking forward to seeing Judith and Robert again at the BRITDOC Festival in July (www.britdoc.org/festival).
Work on our BRITDOC/JRRT feature doc continues. We have been working with the talented Pixeco team on developing outreach ideas for the Erasing David website, and we are working with the mighty Amnesty International on securing contributors and outreach support.
Our Three Minute Wonder films continue to take shape, we are working on a short film about a UK A&E doctor’s mission to transform healthcare in a small village in Mozambique, and a beautiful film about a Roma community in Croatia, as they prepare for their annual pageant.
Also this month, one of our Sebastian Horsley films – the one where he talks about drugs - played as part of the ‘Wasted’ season on Current TV.
May 2008
We are in full production for our Channel 4 Three Minute Wonders, and well into pre-production for our feature doc for Channel 4, BRITDOC and The Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust.
We've just finished some interviews for the great folks at the International Fundraising Consultancy to help them to present to possible clients.
And we've also been filming Credit Agricole's senior management, which was very interesting.
April 2008
Our Guerilla Gardening film has been selected to play at the excellent East End Film Festival. The film will be showing at The Rio in Dalston on Sunday 20th April.
ER doctor DJ Brown and filmmaker Leo Lawson recently filmed their adventures in Mozambique and we are currently editing their amazing footage.
We have just started work on an ace new film for Current TV. It’s about Facebook and it will hopefully cause a stir…
Also this month, after a great meeting with Channel 4, we have officially started production on our Three Minute Wonder films.
March 2008
We are currently working on getting a dream commission for a film we really want to make about privacy in the UK. We are in the middle of putting together a major proposal and trailer for BRITDOC and the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust.
Also this month we brought Greenpeace and top ad agency Mother together for meetings about an exciting environmental project we are working on, we are continuing the development of our Greenpeace viral film, and we’ve been busy shooting live action scenes for an innovative corporate website for SAS Design.
February 2008
We have just been given the green light for our first Channel 4 commission - to make a series of four Three Minute Wonders. We are over the moon. The films will be about sex workers in the UK. We don't want to give too much away, but they should screen this summer. We love 3MWs and are very excited to be making films about this challenging subject.
January 2008
We've been deep in development for two very exciting documentary projects. We'll have more news in February.
December 2007
It’s been a busy month - we have just shot and delivered a brilliant short drama for Weapon 7, Leo Burnett and the DfT for their Christmas Drink Drive campaign. We worked with the wonderful actors at E15 acting school to make a powerful film that warns of the dangers of driving after that cheeky Christmas pint. The spot will go live online from the 1st December.
Four of our films about the author, artist and dandy Sebastian Horsley, have been snapped up by Current TV for broadcast at the end of November. They look great and are full of delicious quotes and tales of debauchery (eg, “I could count the number of people I’ve slept with on one hand - if I was holding a calculator.”). Look out for the films on Current TV (Virgin channel 155, Sky channel 193) in early December.
November 2007
Our mushroom film ‘Secret Shrooms’ is about to broadcast on Current TV any day now. The film follows a motley group of foragers at a secret UK location on their autumnal hunt for edible mushrooms.
To finish the month we are currently in production on an exciting and groundbreaking series of films for the law firm Slaughter and May. The project will go live next year and will look fantastic – corporate film with a twist...
October 2007
Our Greenpeace project is full steam ahead and about to go into production – we are working with two ace Creatives at Mother, and together we are currently honing scripts etc. It’s very exciting.
We are developing a project with the Fawcett Society for their Sexism and the City campaign. News to follow…
September 2007
We are cutting two more ace films for the lovely folk at Current TV – the first follows the Strangers Into Citizens campaign in the build up to their huge march in Trafalgar Square earlier this year. The second film follows a motley group of foragers at a secret UK location on their autumnal hunt for edible mushrooms. The films will be broadcast later this year.
Green Lions has shot and is editing a campaign film for Community Links, the innovative inner city charity running community-based projects in east London. Community Links helps over 50,000 vulnerable children, young people and adults every year in Newham, one of the poorest boroughs in Europe. Our film aims to help them raise money for valuable resources to continue their fantastic work.
We are working with the London Citizens organisation developing a documentary covering their work in the run up to the London Mayoral elections in May next year.
August 2007
Green Lions has launched a YouTube channel. Check out youtube.com/greenlionsfilms.
We have been developing a drugs documentary for the government drugs agency Frank. This exciting project will be made by young people who will talk openly and honestly about their cocaine use.
We have made a series of short films for Hodder about the author, artist and dandy Sebastian Horsley. Sebastian’s recently published autobiography Dandy in the Underworld was awarded 6/6 stars and Book Of the Week status in Time Out, and described as, “One of the most flat-out demented and compelling accounts of a life gone wrong ever committed to paper”. Watch the films at youtube.com/greenlionsfilms.
July 2007
Our campaign film for A-CET has helped the charity raise over £100,000. This is great news - a testament to the hard work of A-CET head David Stables, as well as to the power of a good campaign film!
We are currently developing documentary projects with actor, writer and human rights activist Lewis Alsamari.
Green Lions has been working on some exciting corporate jobs for ace design company SAS Design.
June 2007
Bloomsbury comissioned us and we delivered a short documentary about Nick Ward, the last man rescued from the 1979 Fastnet race tragedy.
May 2007
We are in pre-production on a campaign commercial for Greenpeace and enoughsenough with Mother.
We've also in development on a film about Claire Bertschinger (see Never at Rest), International Red Cross nurse and Woman of the Year, with the help of the British Red Cross.
April 2007
We have completed three test commercials for the Bank of Moscow with WCRS.
March 2007
We've delivered and Current TV has broadcast Guerrilla Gardening, our first in a series of films for the new channel. Current TV has just launched in the UK and Al Gore has been talking about our film in the press and on TV.
Green Lions Director David Bond has been interviewed on CNN news for a feature on Current TV and the future of broadcasting.
We've just completed work on a film for Strangers into Citizens, a national campaign highlighting the plight of irregular immigrants in the UK.
February 2007
We are starting work with Mother, the ad agency, on a film for Greenpeace and enoughsenough. More to follow on this...
January 2007
Green Lions has just agreed a five-film deal with Current TV (owned by Al Gore) to develop and produce content for their launch in the UK in March.
A documentary following the 'Strangers into Citizens' campaign to regularise illegal immigrants is in the pipeline. See www.strangersintocitizens.org.uk for more details. Please show them your support.
Learning for Life, a fundraising film for A-CET, the African Children's Educational Trust is now completed. It a has been getting great responses from potential donors. One emailed us saying: "I viewed it with tears in my eyes. It is so powerful."
December 2006
We've delivered another DiTV spot, this time for Hyundai's new Santa Fe, Getz and Coupe models.
November 2006
We're working on a film with maverick breakbeat duo Coldcut to accompany world-wide cinema projections of their current Sound Mirrors DVD project.
October 2006
We've just delivered a DiTV spot for Vauxhall's new Corsa.
10x4, a short film we've produced has won a prize in competition at the Bloomsbury Festival. Shortlisted films were screened at the Renoir Cinema on 21st October and judged by a panel from Curzon Cinemas.
Never at Rest, our doc about Claire Bertschinger screened at the Raindance Film Festival on October 3rd.
September 2006
Lions are Green, our first short, has been accepted into competition at the 34th Roshd International Film Festival in Iran.
We've just finished work on Food and Learning in Ethiopia, a short documentary about the benefits of small charities. The film features
A-CET, a charity run by one pensioner in Leicester which supports the education of African children.
August 2006
We've completed a third project for Mother - a test radio ad.
Never at Rest, our doc about Claire Bertschinger has been accepted into the Raindance Film Festival.
July 2006
We've finished a second job for Mother - a 60 second test TV spot.
We've just finished our Filmmaking Toolkit DVD for Creative Partnerships and Columbia Primary School in London. This was the culmination of 18 months involvement with the school, making films in class with children and teachers. If you're interested in obtaining a copy of the toolkit, email info@greenlions.com.
Following Never at Rest, our film about former International Red Cross nurse and Woman of the Year Claire Bertschinger, we've begun production on a documentary about small charities she supports.
June 2006
We've just finished a mood film for Mother ad agency. They are pitching to a big potential client so we made a 5 minute film to help them.
May 2006
We are making a short fundraising film for Aegis Foundation, a community development charity working in Iraq. It features Kate Adie and highlights the terrible conditions in which many Iraqis now live.
April 2006
Timmy - A Savage Affair, a short film originally made for straight 8 by Ashley and Dominic Jones is available to view on the web for the first time.
March 2006
Green Lions short Water Damage is reviewed on Create Television, a weekly Community Channel show celebrating the best in independent arts and media. They call the film "a deeply thought-provoking film exploring loss".
January 2006
Never at Rest is reviewed by Channel 4 commissioners. Each month, fourdocs chooses a couple of short documentaries for review. Never at Rest, our short documentary about Claire Bertschinger, was reviewed.
Comments included:
"It’s magical… The pace is good. She is articulate and assured - yet oddly cold.”
Patrick Uden, Executive editor, fourdocs
"starts with a great emotional story which immediately compels you to stick with it.”
Dominique Walker, Commissioning Editor, Channel 4
"A well paced, thoughtful film that felt very timely. It was shot nicely, her beautiful garden contrasting nicely with the arid landscape in Africa."
Kate Vogel, Commissioning Editor, Channel 4
November 2005
The Arts Council awards Green Lions a grant to help introduce filmmaking into the primary school curriculum. For the next 12 months, we will be running regular sessions at Columbia Road Primary School to develop ways that teachers can use film in the classroom. The films and notes on how we made them will then be made available to all primary school teachers. We're loving being back in school.
Green Lions shoots modern dance film Waiting For The Fifth Arrow with ground-breaking dancer/choreographer Preeti Vasudevan.
October 2005
Ashley Jones joins Green Lions to help primarily with business development and marketing.
The Last of the Stockbrokers is screened on TV for the first time.
September 2005
Green Lions short Lions are Green is chosen for inclusion in BBC2's Homegrown Hollywood and screens 7 times on BBC2.
July 2005
Green Lions successfully pitches to write and produce our first advert The Last of the Stockbrokers for JWT/Global Trader: a 1-minute spot about a fat, feral stockbroker living wild in the woods.
June 2005
Green Lions works for Bloomsbury publishing to shoot and cut an electronic press kit for the launch of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.