Jane Preston
agent: Camilla Chiverton - camilla@sternwild.com
Jane is a Grierson and Broadcast nominated and RTS winning premium documentary director, producer and writer. She excels at crafting interview and archive led retrospective films, features with drama reconstruction and observational character driven documentaries delivered with journalistic depth, emotional breadth and cinematic flair.
Her career spans over 20 years with a focus on popular culture, celebrity driven projects, crime and sport. Jane has produced a strong list of credits for global and UK broadcasters including Disney, Netflix, Sky, BBC, Channel 4, ITV, 20th Century Fox, A+E and theatrical-release feature docs.
As a journalist with exceptional writing and interviewing skills, Jane previously worked for UK and international newspapers and magazines conducting current affairs investigations and interviewing film stars and music icons such as Sylvester Stallone, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Tom Cruise and Prince. She has also written biographies for a range of pop stars and TV celebrities.
When Jane transitioned from journalistic storytelling to documentary filmmaking, she quickly gained recognition for her ability to secure and maintain access to A-list talent, building trust and rapport to capture outstanding interviews in films such as In Vogue: The 90s (Disney+), Gascoigne The Movie (eOne/Sky/Netflix cinema release feature doc), The Jacksons Are Coming (C4), and Phenoms: England’s Journey to the World Cup (Fox feature doc). Her sophisticated story-telling skills come to the fore in the edit where she expertly weaves meaningful narratives with archival footage, style, depth, and purpose.
Jane gets to the heart of complex crime narratives through forensic investigative journalistic work and a firm understanding of compliance, while drawing out emotional depth from vulnerable contributors. Her film Accused: Innocent or Guilty was the season opener that spawned the successful long-running true crime series for A+E and was nominated for a Silver Gavel Award.
Jane seeks to draw out nuanced understanding of interactive relationships and is fascinated by the human condition. Her Grierson nominated film Nikki Graham: Who Is She? reveals the impact of anorexia, while Sex Change Soldier (Broadcast nominated) and The Extraordinary Life of April Ashley (Grierson nominated) explore transgenderism. Table Dancing Diaries examines the world of lap-dancing, RTS Award-winning Graffiti Wars follows the turf war between street artist Banksy and graffiti writer King Robbo and the films East 17: The Reunion and Who Got The Bay City Rollers’ Millions? delve into the complex, and fraught, relationships between members of successful bands.
An early career as a ballet dancer, actress and drama teacher at Holloway Prison - where Jane staged and directed a full-length production of West Side Story with the inmates and gained her deep understanding of the nuances of incarcerated life – also sparked a love of the arts and visual story telling. Her skills as a drama director, together with her strong aesthetic talents and collaborative work with leading Directors of Photography, have enabled her to produce elegant and cinematic impressionistic drama reconstruction for a variety of documentary films, most recently The Extraordinary Life of April Ashley (Channel 4).
Jane has a deep knowledge of sport. She has the unique ability to bring authentic and unexpected stories to the world of football, while self-shooting cinematic action photography and delivering strong narrative interviews in her award-winning films with football icons Paul Gascoigne, Gareth Southgate, Wayne Rooney, Jose Mourinho, Dele Alli and the England Football Team.
Jane is an advocate for collaborative and supportive working environments. She leads her teams with warmth and positivity. She mentors young filmmakers and sits on the boards of Women in Film and Television (WFTV) and the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA).