Jaine Green, is a UK Artist and former documentary maker and Stand-up comedian. She was Head of Content at Discover.film, a short film distribution platform and is currently an adviser on systems for judging the quality of creative content at AI Aware, a company that is building products to detect AI generated images and videos.
Her films deal with often difficult taboo social issues involving women in society such as when she was the first person to show a clitoris on UK national television. Green has made more than 50 diverse films and commercials and also directed theatre. Her West End debut was a production of Lip Service, a dark comedy about three women taking calls for a sex line. She won the Best Docu-Soap award at the National TV Awards and her short film, Cherry Cake, was an official selection at the 34th Vancouver International Film Festival; a finalist for the Best Narrative Short award at the 24th St Louis Film Festival; nominated for Best International Short Film at the 25th International Flickerfest Festival. and a Jury Selection at the 27th Palm Springs Film Festival.
Personal life She was born in London, studied in Chichester and currently lives in Hastings on the south coast of England. Her background is unconventional for a film director as she worked as a hairdresser and stand-up comedian,GreenFingerFilms website , September 2016. before winning a place on ITV's Metroland, a series for first time directors, with I have the gift, a documentary film about Leon, a postman in Brixton who claims to have abilities of psychic gifts and provides both physical and spiritual support.Metroland: I have the Gift, British Film Institute, 1995.
Green is the mother of spoken word artist and author Laura Dockrill.Ian Burrell, , The Independent, July 2009
Career Green has been making controversial films since 1996, when one of her first documentaries I'm Your Number One Fan (C4) split the critics. Victor Lewis-Smith stated that it "transcended the documentary format" due to its opening sequence shot on Super 8 filmI'm Your Number One Fan, Discover Film, September 2016 and was "a true work of art that deserves to win every award it's entered for",Victor Lewis-Smith, "I'm Your Number One Fan", Evening Standard, 5 October 1996 but Jim Shelley thought it was exploitative.Jim Shelley, Jim Shelley Knows the Pressures of Fame, The Guardian, October 1996 The film followed three stalkers quietly going about their daily business as they harassed the likes of Princess Diana. German doctor Klaus Wagner believed Princess Diana was at the centre of a hate campaign by the Queen.Jane Thynne, TV gives soapbox to man who haunts Princess of Wales, The Daily Telegraph, 19 September 1996 Blue Tulip Rose Read is seen crowing like a cockerel as she pursues DJ Mike Read.I'm Your Number One Fan, Prolific Films, 1996
The film attracted a cult following. The Evening Standard began selling 'Mrs Read teeshirts', and comedy series The League of Gentlemen used direct quotes from the film in newspaper signs, seen around Royston Vasey in various episodes of the first series.A controversial documentary from 1996, Discover Film, 2015 The writing on these signs include "Ed Stewart's breath stinks", "Mike Read's breath is beautiful" and "Mike Read made me better".The League of Gentleman,Series 1, episodes 2,3,4 and 6, BBC, January 1999
The social roles of women and their experiences within society are themes in a number of Green's other documentaries. In 2008, Female Hoarders examined the psychology behind compulsive hoarding by women. An earlier film Sleeping with the Enemy, distributed by the BBC, examined the impact of religious differences on families and included a Jewish woman born in a Nazi hospital in World War II, a Muslim woman forcibly separated from her Christian husband in Sarayevo by the Yugoslavian conflicts of the early 1990s and a committed Hindu married to a Church of England vicar.A Family affair: uniting our faiths with love, The Independent, December 1998
As filmmaker
As well as documentaries exploring ethical dilemmas and female social roles, Green has made a number of films about celebrities and their need to keep aspects of their lives hidden from their fans. In Jennifer Lopez – Behind the Behind, a number of previously secret aspects of Lopez's life were revealed including that her ex-teacher who was nearly twice her age became her live-in lover and that she was privately educated and from an affluent neighbourhood rather than having the poor background that she claimed.Glamour, Jens Not Really From the Block ,Glamour Magazine, 28 April 2003 The documentary The Truth About Take That explored the compromises that the boy band had to make when famous. The film examined the reasons why sexuality matters to fans and how it can affect sales in the music industry.
Green made a party political broadcast for the breakaway Pro-Euro Conservative Party which was declared as controversial by both The Guardian and The Independent. It was said that it would lead to a change in future campaigns where a more US-style 'gloves off approach' would likely be adopted. The broadcast contained a portrayal of William Hague as a tramp.
A more mainstream production was Simon Rattle – Moving On a year-long production for the BBC which followed Rattle, who was at the time Britain's best known conductor in his final year at the CBSO. In the film, Rattle criticised the Labour Government for their policy towards arts funding and announced plans to leave the UK.Jane Hughes, Rattle to quit Labour's musical desert, The Independent, December 1998 He subsequently moved to Germany to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic.
In recent years, documentaries have included The Real Witch Project, Middle Aged Mummy’s Boys, and Tourette’s on the Job (finalist for BAFTA/MHMA).14th Annual Awards, Shortlist announced for Mental Health Media Awards 2007 , MHMA, 2007 All of these documentaries have as a common theme the sympathetic portrayal of people who are for various reasons struggling with the behaviours exhibited by mainstream society. For example, Tourette's on the Job features Brad Cohen, who was branded a troublemaker in school and punished by his teachers for the tics and barking noises that were caused by his Tourette's.
In 2014 Green wrote, directed and produced a short, independently funded drama, Cherry Cake, which has actors Matthew Kelly and Eve Pearce. The film is set in rural England and challenges the audiences expectations of what it is to be elderly with the character of 86-year old Ingrid. In 2015 Green used Kickstarter to raise money for this project.
As producer
In 2009, Green was executive producer on Channel 4's My Monkey Baby, about people who treat monkeys as children who don't grow up which provoked a debate about the ethics of keeping monkeys as pets. Lori and Jim Johnson, interviewed in the documentary, consider Jessy, a Capuchin monkey, to be their child to such a degree that Jim states that, 'If I hear anyone call her a monkey I throw a fit. She's my daughter, 100%'.Sam Wollaston, Last night's TV: My Monkey Baby, Nature's Fury and Meet the British, The Guardian, June 2009 The film reveals the family traumas that underpin this behaviour as Lori hadn't had contact with any of her six children for five years and another participant, Mary-Lynn, had had to have a hysterectomy at a young age.Kathryn Flett,I hear the pitter-patter of tiny paws, The Observer, June 2009
Another example of a film that Green produced that looks at 'outsiders' is Love in Rimini which features the love lives of straight Italian men in relationships with transsexuals. It explores how men justify their attraction to a transsexual and how this fits into straight sexual identity, particularly in the context of machismo in Italian society.
Green echoed her earlier interest in the paranormal as series producer in 2009 for Psychic Academy, where Tony Stockwell, who claims to have demonstrated psychic abilities as a child, attempts to identify members of the public who have the ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception (ESP) or have the necessary intuitive processes to produce the appearance of such abilities.
In 2012, she was series producer for Secret Millionaire in the UKThe Secret Millionaire Series 10, The Radio Times, January 2012 which won Best Docu-Soap at the National Reality TV Awards 2012 by The National Reality TV Academy.National Reality TV awards 2012 winners announced , National Television Awards, August 2012
From 2015 to 2016, Jaine Green was the global Show Runner for UnderCover Angel, a ten part series for National Geographic Channel.GreenFingerFilms, National Geographic Channel, September 2016
Awards
Finalist BAFTA Mental Health Awards. Finalist, Best Narrative Short, St Louis International Film Festival. Jury Selection, 27th Palm Springs International Film Festival. Official Selection, 34th Vancouver International Film Festival. Won Best Docu-Soap at National TV Awards. Won Italian Pomo d'oro.
References
External links IMDb filmography by year for Jaine Harmston-Green British Film Institute filmography by year for Jaine Green Jaine Green – Myspace Films Jaine Green – Fresh Prince Of Bel Air