Beeban Kidron

Film director

Birthday May 2, 1961

Birth Sign Taurus

Birthplace North London, England

Age 62 years old

Nationality United Kingdom

#48455 Most Popular

1925

The film was shown at the Berlin Film Festival and, to celebrate Greenham's 25th anniversary, it was revived through The Guardian-backed website, www.yourgreenham.com.

1961

Beeban Tania Kidron, Baroness Kidron, (born 2 May 1961) is an advocate for children's rights in the digital world.

She has played a determinative role in establishing standards for online safety and privacy across the world.

Baroness Kidron sits as a crossbench peer in the UK's House of Lords.

She is an advisor to the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University, a commissioner on the UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development and founder and chair of 5Rights Foundation.

Before being appointed to the Lords she was an award-winning film director and founder of the charity Filmclub (now Into Film).

Kidron was born in north London, to Nina and Michael Kidron.

Her parents were the founders and proprietors of the independent publishing house Pluto Press, which started life from the laundry room of their family home.

Michael's family were South African Jews who immigrated to Israel.

Michael left Israel to attend Oxford University.

He went on to teach economics, and the family spent several years living in Yorkshire while he taught at the University of Hull.

Beeban attended Camden School for Girls in Sandall Road, Camden.

She first took up photography when she was given a camera by landscape photographer Fay Godwin during a period when she was unable to speak following a throat operation.

Her photographs were spotted by photographer Eve Arnold, whom she worked for at the age of 16 for two years.

Aged 20, Kidron enrolled at the National Film School as a camerawoman.

At the end of her three years of film school, Kidron switched to directing and stayed on for another year.

Kidron began making documentaries in the 80s.

1983

In 1983, she made her first documentary, Carry Greenham Home, with co-director Amanda Richardson.

It was filmed during the year that they spent at the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp during the anti nuclear protests.

1988

In 1988, she made her first feature film, Vroom, which starred Clive Owen in his debut film.

The following year she came to greater prominence with her adaptation of Jeanette Winterson's autobiographical novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.

This won three Baftas including best drama series/serial.

1990

The 1990s and early 2000s saw Kidron move between Hollywood, New York and London, making features, TV programmes and documentaries.

1992

In 1992 Kidron moved to Hollywood to make Used People with Shirley MacLaine and Marcello Mastroianni.

The following year, she directed Hookers, Hustlers, Pimps and Their Johns, a documentary about the New York City sex industry.

She then returned to the UK to pair up with Winterson for the BBC film Great Moments in Aviation starring Vanessa Redgrave and Jonathan Pryce, which was subsequently renamed Shades of Fear by Miramax CEO Harvey Weinstein.

1995

In 1995, she made To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, a drag queen road movie starring Wesley Snipes and Patrick Swayze.

1997

1997 brought Swept from the Sea, a romantic adaptation of the Joseph Conrad story "Amy Foster", starring Rachel Weisz and Vincent Perez, which Variety called "masterfully crafted and heartfelt".

Over the next few years Kidron made a number of TV films both at home and abroad, including Cinderella, Texarkana and Murder, for which she was nominated for a second Bafta.

2004

In 2004 she directed the second installment of the Bridget Jones series, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, starring Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, and Hugh Grant.

2007

In 2007 she made a documentary about neighbour and friend, the sculptor Antony Gormley.

Kidron and her husband, playwright and author of Billy Elliot, Lee Hall, began work on Hippie Hippie Shake, a film about the Oz magazine trials.

2009

The film was shot in 2009 with Sienna Miller and Cillian Murphy; however Kidron and Hall left during post-production, citing artistic differences with the producers.

2010

In 2010 The Guardian named Oranges the eighth best TV series of all time.

Following the success of Oranges, Kidron continued to work for the BBC, making the TV feature film Antonia and Jane, distributed by Miramax in the US, as well as Itch starring and co-written by Alexei Sayle for Channel 4's 4 Play anthology series.

Kidron spent much of 2010 in Southern India researching and shooting a documentary on the Devadasi.

Sex, Death and the Gods premiered on BBC 4 as part of the Storyville series.

2013

In 2013 Kidron directed the documentary InRealLife, a co-production between Cross Street Films and Studio Lambert.

The film explored teenagers and their relationship to the internet.

It was this film that acted as a catalyst for her campaign work around children's rights in the online world.