Lisa Marie Russo - Producer/co-producer
Lisa Marie is an independent filmmaker who works with a range of production companies and also through her own company, Jump Monk Films.
Lisa Marie recently produced (with Ruth Caleb) Shiny Shiny Bright New Hole In My Heart for BBC2/BBC Films. Marc Munden directed this improvised feature length drama about a shopping addict, starring Sally Hawkins, Steven Mackintosh and Daniela Nardini. Shiny and was broadcast July 2006. She also co-produced the Panama section of American cult director Harmony Korine’s latest film, Mister Lonely for Recorded Picture Company.
Prior to that, she co-produced (and line-produced) the feature film Brothers Of The Head, about a rock promoter who turns conjoined twins into a pre-punk act. Brothers... is directed by Lou Pepe and Keith Fulton, and produced by Simon Channing Williams and Gail Egan for Potboiler Productions, FilmFour and EM-Media. The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, opened the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival, and will screen in Edinburgh. It will be released by Metro Tartan in the UK and IFC in the US.
Additional producing credits include the C4 film Dance, a one-hour psychological drama for the series Shockers, directed by Richard Clark and ten short films including The Tale Of The Rat That Wrote (BAFTA Nominated 2000, Best International Short, San Francisco Film Festival 2000, Best Short, Toronto Short FF 2000, Best Cinematography, Cork Film Festival 1999). TALES was directed by Billy O’Brien, and produced with Ruth Kenley-Letts for Blue Orange Films.
She also directed two dance documentaries for the C4 series Strictly Dancing in 1996.
Prior to moving to the UK in 1994, Lisa Marie was a staff producer/director at PBS station WHYY in Philadelphia. She directed many shorts, live studio broadcasts and documentaries. In 1992 she received an Emmy for PEACE, a critique of the Gulf War, along with three additional Emmy nominations for her documentary films.
While at WHYY Lisa Marie was also the Assistant Coordinator of Input 88, a festival of innovative international television. From 1988-94, she was series producer of Independent Images, broadcasting the works of regional independent filmmakers. She has also made programmes for the Discovery Channel and National Geographic.
Lisa Marie was a partner and vice-president of Arch Street Pictures in Philadelphia, where she produced FALLOUT, a low-budget feature, distributed internationally by Showcase. The film screened at Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, Charleston (Bronze prize for first feature), Palm Springs and Edinburgh Film Festivals.
During her time in Philadelphia, Lisa Marie was a founding member of Talk is Cheap, an anarchist arts magazine and also the editorial assistant of a community paper, The South Street Star.
She has a BA in journalism with a minor in dramatic literature from the Pennsylvania State University, is a Governor of the London Film School and a member of BAFTA and ACE.
