GwenIsaac
- Director
- Producer
British-born, Kiwi-raised filmmaker Gwen Isaac specialises in observational documentaries. She’s directed reality series for ITV and the BBC, and won praise for her documentary Old Dog, New Tricks. Her first feature documentary was Where There is Life (2017) following a Wellington family caring for their terminally ill mother. Her CV also includes documentary Ms. Information (2023) about high profile microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles.
Screenography
Biography
Michael Apted and Paul Almond's decade-spanning documentary series Seven Up! — which follows the lives of 14 British children — is a touchstone for filmmaker Gwen Isaac.
Isaac was born in London, but soon moved with her artist mother to New Zealand, to join a thriving single parent artist community in the Bay of Islands. Seven Up! would inspire her to study at the Auckland University of Technology, where she got a Bachelor of Communications, specialising in documentary. She then moved back to London to pursue her career. In the city's busy and highly competitive scene, she won gigs directing television for broadcasters ITV and the BBC, and companies RDF and Endemol.
Awards
2017 London Independent Film Awards
Best First Time Director: for Where There is Life
“At the start it was going to be about Margaret but it turned out to be more about her husband, Stephen, who emerges as the unlikely hero. The beauty of observational documentary is that you probably don't know what you've got until years after you've shot it.”