Independent Miss Craigie

Filmmaker Lizzie Thynne tells the story of director Jill Craigie's (1911-99) remarkable career, drawing on her own words and extensive clips from her work.

Years after her death, film director Jill Craigie (1911 – 99) reopens an old suitcase, left behind in her house. The contents prompt memories of the extraordinary life and loves of this forceful, charismatic woman, better known in later life as the wife of former Labour leader, Michael Foot. Working outside the British Documentary Movement in the 1940s and early 50s, Craigie's films tackled new subjects for the cinema through a unique blend of drama, polemic and often humour. To Be Woman (1951) passionately advocates equal pay for women and Out of Chaos (1944), featuring Henry Moore and Paul Nash, is the first film on artists at work.

Filmmaker Lizzie Thynne tells the story of the director's remarkable career, drawing on her own words, newly discovered letters, and extensive clips from her work and other shorts written or produced by women from the period. This film is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and The University of Sussex.