Spanner Films is a small London-based documentary company founded by film director Franny Armstrong in 1997.

Spanner Films
Company typeFilm production company
IndustryIndependent film
FoundedLondon, UK (1997)
HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
Key people
Franny Armstrong
Lizzie Gillett
ProductsDocumentary film
Websitespannerfilms.net

Productions

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The company's earliest production was McLibel (1997/2005), a documentary film about David Morris and Helen Steel, a postman and a gardener, who took on McDonald's and won the case, with courtroom reconstructions by Ken Loach. Drowned Out (2002) follows an Indian family who decide to stay at home and drown rather than make way for the Narmada Dam.[citation needed]

The Age of Stupid, a drama-documentary-animation hybrid film about anthropogenic climate change, was released in 2009. The film was crowd funded via a bespoke website which raised £1.5m.[1]

Pie Net Zero, a comedic short film about climate change and biosequestration efforts in South West England written by Armstrong and comedian Tom Walker and featuring Walker’s character Jonathan Pie, was released in 2020.[2]

Future productions

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In March 2014 Spanner Films announced their new project Undercovers, a television drama series about the undercover police officers who infiltrated the British activist scene for 50 years, and the women who unknowingly had long term relationships and children with the spies. The series is being written by Simon Beaufoy, Alice Nutter, and Franny Armstrong, and executive produced by Tony Garnett.[3]

References

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  1. ^ "Is crowd-funding the future for documentaries?". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  2. ^ "Pie Net Zero". 24 January 2020. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  3. ^ "Undercovers Press Release". Spanner Films. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
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