Franny Armstrong | |
|---|---|
 Armstrong atChatham House in 2013 | |
| Born | (1972-02-03)3 February 1972 (age 54) |
| Occupations | Documentary film director Former drummer withThe Band of Holy Joy |
| Notable work | McLibel The Age of Stupid Drowned Out |
| Father | Peter Armstrong |
Franny Armstrong (born 3 February 1972)[1][2] is a Britishdocumentary filmdirector working for her own company,Spanner Films, and a former drummer with indie pop groupThe Band of Holy Joy. She is best known for three films:The Age of Stupid, a reflection from 2055 aboutclimate change,McLibel, about theMcDonald's court case andDrowned Out, following the fight against theNarmada Dam Project.
Armstrong pioneered the use ofcrowdfunding for independent films and developed an innovative form of film distribution known asIndie Screenings.[3] Her most recent project is the carbon reduction campaign10:10 which she founded in the UK in September 2009, and which is now active in more than 50 countries. On International Women's Day, 8 March 2011, she was named as one ofThe Guardian newspaper's "Top 100 Women", in a list which includedAung San Suu Kyi,Gareth Peirce,Doris Lessing,Arundhati Roy andOprah Winfrey.[4] Her father is the television producerPeter Armstrong.[5]
Armstrong readzoology atUniversity College London and her thesis wasIs the human species suicidal?[6]
Armstrong's first documentary,McLibel (1997, 2005), is an account of theMcDonald's libel trial, the longest-running court action in English legal history. Filmed over ten years with no commission, no budget and a voluntary crew – includingKen Loach, who directed the courtroom reconstructions – it gained attention when lawyers prevented its broadcast, first atBBC One and then atChannel 4 in 1997. Eight years later - after the 'McLibel Two' had defeated theBritish government at theEuropean Court of Human Rights – it was finally broadcast on BBC2 at 10.30pm on a Sunday, to an estimated 1 million viewers.
It was well received by critics, withTime Out crediting Armstrong with "gusto and wit" in telling a story that "will satisfy both head and heart".[7]The Guardian concluded thatMcLibel was "absolutely unmissable".[8]
McLibel was broadcast on television in 15 countries, and in cinemas in the US in summer 2005, and this was followed in the UK in 2006.McLibel was nominated for numerous awards, including the Grierson Documentary Award and theBritish Independent Film Awards. It was one of only two British films, with the other beingMichael Buerk's original news report which inspiredLive Aid, picked for theBritish Film Institute's prestigious series, "Ten Documentaries which Changed the World".
Armstrong's second feature documentary,Drowned Out (2002), follows an Indian family who chose to stay at home and drown rather than make way for theNarmada Dam. It was nominated for Best Documentary at theBritish Independent Film Awards 2004 and was released theatrically in America and on DVD in 2006.
Armstrong releasedThe Age of Stupid (formerly known asCrude) in March 2009. It's a film that warns of the catastrophic effects of climate change using a mix of factual documentary and post-apocalyptic fictional styles. The film's UK premiere was on 15 March 2009, in London'sLeicester Square.[9] The screening was held in a solar-powered 'cinema tent' and conducted without use of mains electricity. An independent audit conducted by Carbon Accounting Systems found the event'scarbon emissions to be 1% of those produced by a normal blockbuster premiere.[10] Linked by satellite to 62 cinemas around the UK, the premiere received aGuinness World Record for being the largest film premiere ever, based on number of screens.[11]
The complete five-year production ofThe Age of Stupid was made into a film and launched exclusively on the Guardian website.[12]
Through her company,Spanner Films, Armstrong pioneered the "crowdfunding" finance model, which allows filmmakers to raise reasonable-size budgets whilst retaining ownership of their films.The Age of Stupid raised £900,000 from over 600 investors.[13]
Armstrong also developed the "Indie Screenings" distribution system, which lets anyone make a profit by holding screenings of independent films.[14] The producers maintain a running total of all the people who have seen Spanner's films, Armstrong's production company, via cinema, TV and local screenings, as of January 2011 it stands at just over 61 million.[15]
At theUN Climate Summit in Copenhagen in December 2009, Armstrong presented a dailyweb TV show,The Stupid Show, which aimed to "make sense of humankind's most important get-together".[16]
In September 2009, Armstrong founded the10:10 climate campaign which aims to help all sectors of society to aim for a 10% cut 10% in their carbon emissions in 12 months. The campaign has amassed huge cross-societal support including household names such asAdidas,Microsoft, andTottenham Hotspur F.C. The campaign launched globally in 2010 and is now active in over 50 countries.[17]
In October 2010, a short film, written byRichard Curtis, entitledNo Pressure was released by the10:10 campaign in Britain to spread awareness of climate change. The video was subsequently taken down from the organization's website due to very negative reception and offence taken.[18] However, it is still available in several places, includingYouTube. It depicted a series of scenes in which people were asked if they were going to participate in 10:10. Those who indicated they weren't planning on participating were told "no pressure" and then blown up in a gory explosion at the press of a red button.[19] In response to questions about the message of the film, Armstrong replied, "We 'killed' five people to makeNo Pressure – a mere blip compared to the 300,000 real people who now die each year from climate change".[20]
In March 2014, Armstrong announced her new projectUndercovers, a television drama series about the undercover police officers who infiltrated the British activist scene for 50 years, and the women who unknowingly had longterm relationships and even children with the spies. The series is being written bySimon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire, Hunger Games, Full Monty),Alice Nutter, and Franny Armstrong, produced bySpanner Films and executive produced byTony Garnett. Filming is due to start in Autumn 2014, with an early 2015 release.[21]
Armstrong is Professor of Film at theUniversity of Wolverhampton.[22]
Pie Net Zero, a comedic short film about climate change andbiosequestration efforts in South West England written by Armstrong and comedian Tom Walker and featuring Armstrong as herself and Walker's characterJonathan Pie, was released in 2020.[23]
On 2 November 2009, Armstrong was threatened in the streets of north London by three girls whom she described as looking "like something straight out of central casting". They pushed her against a car and pulled out an iron bar. She cried for help and was rescued byMayor of London,Boris Johnson, who was cycling by. He chased off the attackers and then insisted on escorting Armstrong home. During this 20-minute journey, she suggested that he adopt the10:10 policy for thetube and that he pedestrianiseCamden Town. He replied that he wanted to pedestrianise areas across London.[24]
She thanked him with a 10:10 badge and a copy ofAge of Stupid. When interviewed afterwards, she praised him as her "knight on a shining bicycle". Politically, she still preferred his predecessorKen Livingstone, for whom she hadcampaigned but allowed that "If you find yourself down a dark alleyway and in trouble I think Boris would be of more use than Ken".[25]
