Alice Russell

My guest this week is double BIFA winning director Alice Russell. Her first short film, Men Buy Sex, won the SIMA Creative Activism Award and got Vimeo Staff Picks Best of the Month. Her second short film, Agents of Change was selected as a festival focus at Sheffield DocFest whilst her third short film Terra Incognita followed a team of female activist’s scaling the back of reefer ships in the Antarctic.

In 2022, her debut feature doc, If the Streets Were On Fire had its world premiere at the 66th BFI London Film Festival where it came second in the Audience Award, before going on to scoop up the Best Feature Documentary and the Raindance Maverick Awards at the BIFA’s in 2023.

Alice and I talk about her passion for telling authentic stories and finding charismatic characters who inspire her, the importance of trusting your gut, as well as the challenges that arise when you juggle projects over many years. As an aside, we also discussed our shared love of icebergs!