Child of Mine
Liz and Susan have broken up and Liz is denied access to their six month old son, John. Child of Mine charts Liz’s efforts to win access to John through the Scottish courts. Interspersed are portraits of two couples who together challenged the obstacles to legal recognition of lesbian co-parents in England. We follow Liz’s ups and downs as she prepares her case with her lawyer and asks what means to be a parent. The film features Donna C who was the first co-parent to gain parental rights to the child born by her partner, Donna W under the Children’s Act (1989).
Producer/Director: Lizzie Thynne Executive Producer: Charlie Stuart
Fresh Films, Scotland for Channel Four Television, 1996
French subtitles
Press: Daily Mail September 27 1996; The Observer, 26 September 1996; ‘Automne au Kremlin’, Lesbia magazine, Décembre 1997
Article
(2011) Thynne, Lizzie, ‘Ethics, politics and representation in Child of Mine, a television documentary on lesbian parenting’, Jump Cut, no. 53
Selected festivals
Le Printemps de Cineffable Paris 2010
Paris International Lesbian and Feminist Film Festival 1997; San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Film Festival 1997; Figuera Da Foz 1996; Berlin International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival; Visibilia, Bolgona, 1997; Festivale Internazionale de Cinema GayLesbico di Milano 1996; Melbourne Queer Film Festival with tour to other Australian cities 1997
After the Revolution
A wry look at the effects of sexual repression on lesbian and gays in former Czechoslovakia. After the Revolution explores the impact of the new gay movement, combining personal accounts and rarely seen propaganda film. After 40 years of totalitarian silence about sexuality, lesbian, gay and transsexual contributors reveal how they reacted to exclusion from communist norms of heterosexuality and parenthood, including in the case of some women, by changing sex.
Director: Lizzie Thynne Producer: Cheryl Farthing Piranha Productions for Channel Four Television, 1994
Prix Lesbia, Paris Feminist and Lesbian Film Festival, 1996
Selected festivals: Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Paris, Bologna, Turin, British Short Film.
Surrealist Picnic II (2010), Claude Cahun appears as an unexpected guest at a surrealist picnic.
A quirky take on Lee Miller’s iconic photograph of Man Ray and friends on vacation. Premiered at King’s Place, London, accompanied by a live performance of ‘Sextet’ by Ed Hughes.
The House (1996)
A journey with my mother back to Terijoki (Zelenegorsk) to find the house where she lived till she was evacuated aged 11, which my grandmother, Tyyni Pullinen, vividly recreated in her paintings done in old age.
Shown in Divers Memories’ Lieksa Museum, Finland and ‘I Don’t Want to Play House’ Zone Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne,UK, 16”
