PRESS RELEASE – WEDNESDAY 29th FEBRUARY 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Lizzie Gillett New Zealand Tour
London-based New Zealand producer, Lizzie Gillett (The Age of Stupid), will visit New Zealand in early March for a series of talks hosted by Women in Film and Television (WIFT) and
supported by the New Zealand Film Commission.
Gillett will talk about her experience producing The Age of Stupid, and how one million pounds was raised through the pioneering but now ubiquitous "crowd-funding" model to finance the
film which stars late British actor, Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the Father, The Usual Suspects, Brassed Off) as a man living in the devastated future world of 2055, looking back at old footage from our time and asking: why
didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?
Five-years in the making, Gillett managed a crew of 105 people in six countries. She organised the Guinness World
Record-breaking global premiere of the film in London's Leicester Square, in which over one million people in 63
countries participated. The film topped the UK box office (by screen average), became one of the most talked-about films
of 2009 and garnered sensational reviews: The Telegraph called it "Bold, supremely provocative and hugely important",
the News of the World described it as "A deeply inconvenient kick up the backside", ABC Australia said "So tightly
constructed and dynamic you leave the cinema energised rather than terrified... hits home like a hammer blow" and the LA
Times said "Think 'An Inconvenient Truth', but with a personality". In New Zealand, the film premiere was hosted by
Oxfam and Greenpeace in a solar powered, green carpeted tent in Auckland’s viaduct basin.
In 2010, Gillett was hailed by Harper’s Bazaar magazine as a “21st century heroine”, one of twenty “exceptional women
changing the world for the better through the work they do”, and by Vogue as one of the UK’s leading “female
eco-warriors”. Gillett is a director of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand London branch and the global campaign
director for the 10:10 campaign (http://www.1010global.org/)
Gillett’s talk dates and venues are:
Auckland, March 6th, The Classic
Wellington, March 7th, The Film Archive
Christchurch, March 9th, Whitebait TV
Dunedin, March 15th, The Church Cinema
The talks are free to WIFT NZ members and $5 to non-members and will include clips from the film.
For more information about Lizzie Gillett please visit http://www.spannerfilms.net/people/lizzie_gillett
ENDS