Kim Longinotto

Kim Longinotto (born Sally Anne Longinotto-Landseer on 8 February 1948 in London, England) is a pioneering British documentary filmmaker whose work is celebrated for its unflinching focus on women’s lives and struggles across the globe. Raised by an Italian photographer father and a Welsh mother, she endured a turbulent childhood that included a stint at an all‑girls boarding school where a misadventure led to a term of enforced isolation, experiences that later informed her empathetic eye toward marginalised subjects. After discarding the fabricated double‑barreled surname “Landseer” she adopted the moniker Kim (sometimes Kimona) and, following a period of homelessness, enrolled at the University of Essex to study English literature before moving to the National Film and Television School alongside future collaborator Nick Broomfield. Her first breakthrough, Pride of Place (1976), a documentary about her boarding school, premiered at the London Film Festival and announced her commitment to an observational style that eschews narration, staging and re‑enactment. Through the late 1970s and 1980s she honed this direct‑cinema approach with titles such as Theatre Girls (1978) and Underage (1982), eventually co‑founding Vixen Films (originally Twentieth Century Vixen Productions) with Claire Hunt in 1988 to retain creative control over her projects. Longinotto’s prolific catalogue now exceeds twenty feature‑length films, notable among them Divorce Iranian Style (1998), which won the Grand Prize at San Francisco International Film Festival; The Day I Will Never Forget (2002), honoured with the Amnesty International DOEN Award at IDFA; and Sisters in Law (2005), a Cannes‑selected work co‑directed with Florence Ayisi that highlighted women’s legal battles in West Africa. Recent works such as Pink Saris (2010) and Salma (2013) continue her dedication to exposing gender‑based oppression, earning accolades from Sundance, Sheffield Doc/Fest and numerous human‑rights organisations. Today, Kim Longinotto remains a vital voice in documentary cinema, inspiring a new generation of filmmakers to adopt a compassionate, immersive lens that places women’s stories at the centre of global discourse.