Best Director (Factual) & Best Editing (Factual) - BAFTA Television Craft Awards
Photojournalism • Art & Performance Studies • Biographies • European History • Fashion & Photography • Feminist Studies • Women, Gender, and Sexuality • World War IIDate of Completion: 2020 | Run Time: 60 minutes | Language: English | Captions: Yes | Includes: Transcript | Director: Teresa Griffiths | Producer: Rachel Hooper | Executive Producer: Angus Macqueen | Unavailable to the United Kingdom and Ireland
When Lee Miller returned to New York from Europe in October 1932, newspaper reporters were waiting to greet her as her ship docked. Disembarking in a smart beret and fur-collared coat, she smiled for the journalist from the New York World-Telegram. When he referred to her as 'one of the most photographed girls in Manhattan', she retorted, 'I'd rather take a picture than be one.”
Lee Miller is one of the most remarkable female icons of the 20th century. A model turned photographer turned war reporter - Miller chose to live her life by her own rules. This film celebrates a subject who defied anyone who tried to pin her down, put her on a pedestal or pigeonhole her in any way. It tells the story of a trailblazer, often at odds with the morality of the day, who refused to be subjugated by the dominant male figures around her.
Booklist
"In this stylishly shot program, Penrose pieces together his mother’s life from her own writings (read dramatically), commentary by art historians, and of course, the photographs. Miller emerges as a daring artist willing to buck the conventions and limits placed on women in the early 20th century … This would be a fine addition to art history and women’s studies collections."
Stylist
"You may not have heard of Lee Miller, but this BBC documentary about her uncovers a fascinating life. She went from a supermodel, appearing on the cover of American Vogue, to a photographer and war reporter covering the liberation of Europe at the end of World War II before retreating from public life after the trauma she witnessed. War photographer Lynsey Addario and supermodel Karen Elson also appear to testify to her resilience and ground-breaking spirit."
AWARDS
Best Director (Factual) | BAFTA Television Craft Awards
Best Editing (Factual) | BAFTA Television Craft Awards
FESTIVALS
Doc Aviv