DOCUMENTARY FEATURES & HOURS
DUNBLANE: HOW BRITAIN BANNED HANDGUNS
“Simply crafted, elegant… but steeped in raw emotion.” – The Observer
BBC 2 / BBC SCOTLAND
On 13 March 1996, a gunman walked into the gym hall in Dunblane Primary School, Stirlingshire, shot dead 16 pupils and their teacher and seriously injured 14 pupils and two other teachers. The gunman, who was armed with four legally owned handguns and over 700 rounds of ammunition, then killed himself. This is the story of one of the worst crimes in 20th-century Britain, and of how ordinary people forced the government to ensure the tragedy could not happen again, leading to a complete ban on handguns and the institution of some of the tightest gun laws in the world.
The film features poignant contributions from families effected by the shooting, inspiring testimony from campaigners, and frank memories from politicians - including former Prime Minister Tony Blair, Lord Michael Forsyth and Lord George Robertson, and Alastair Campbell.
Produced by IWC Media for BBC Scotland and BBC2.
★★★★★ "Powerful” - Scottish Sun | ★★★★“Devastating” -The Guardian
GENERATION 9/11 (CHILDREN OF 9/11)
PBS / CHANNEL 4 / ARTE
★★★★★ “Both unspeakably tragic and oddly unsentimental.” - The Daily Mail // “Une réussite, à ne pas manquer.” Ouest-France
GENERATION 9/11 is an intimate and creative two-hour film, driven by the stories and personalities of its protagonists, born in the wake of a global tragedy which, for them, was also deeply personal. But it is also the story an entire generation that has been shaped by the attacks and their aftermath. Combining beautiful original footage with archive, UGC, and experimental remote filming techniques, the film casts a fresh light on a tragedy that, two decades on, is still shaping our world.
GENERATION 9/11 (Children of 9/11) was commissioned by PBS, Channel 4, and Arte France to mark the 20th anniversary of the attacks, and produced by Arrow Pictures. It has been picked up by public television stations around the world. Read the Observer Feature.
★★★★ ”Remarkable… never once straying into mawkishness or purience. It was strangely uplifting.” - The Times
★★★★ ”A Powerful Retort to the terrorists behind the attack” - The Telegraph
"GENERATION 9/11" wades into new territory for media depictions of the attack…. feels like a tender coming-of-age story, intimately balances the generational and personal impacts of 9/11 on a group of young people who are uniquely connected in loss.” - Salon.com
“Directed by Liz Mermin, this was a respectful labour of love.” - The Guardian
TEAM QATAR
BBC STORYVILLE
“Absolutely lovely" The Guardian
TEAM QATAR follows five bright and engaging Middle Eastern teens from the world’s richest country as they are initiated into the cutthroat subculture of competitive high-school debate. Guided by two young and charismatic Oxford grads, they're determined to show they aren't the closed-minded extremists they think other kids might imagine them to be – and even more determined to win. An unlikely, surprisingly entertaining window onto the globalised culture of the Arab world and its relation to the West.
Premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Now streaming on Docsville and available on Amazon.
WINNER Best Feature - Doha Tribeca Film Festival
"Hugely enjoyable" TIME OUT
"Engrossing" SUNDAY HERALD
Featured on Al Jazeera's Fabulous Picture Show
AMAZING AZERBAIJAN!
YLE / DR
‘Amazing Azerbaijan!’ pulls back the curtain on the glittery facade that this oil-rich nation presented to the world when hosting Eurovision 2012, telling personal stories of human rights abuses to which Europe's leaders have turned a blind eye.
Produced by Crowhill Films, in association with YLE and DR.
Broadcast on nine national public broadcasters before the 2012 Eurovision semi-final. The film opened Brussels edition of One World Film Festival, screened at London’s Frontline Club and many other events and festivals.
The film received a Bertha / Britdoc outreach grant, and was used by Index on Censorship for a campaign around the lack of press freedom in Azerbaijan.
HORSES
BBC STORYVILLE / IRISH FILM BOARD / RTE
★★★★★"Remarkable.... the most searching portrait of equine personality since George Stubbs." – The Independent
How does the world look from the perspective of a racehorse? Based in a stable in Southeast Ireland, HORSES follows three equine protagonists as they prepare for national hunt races: grueling trials in which a dozen or so thoroughbreds gallop in a tight pack around 2 - 5 mile grass courses, leaping (or trying to leap) over obstacles of 4 ½ feet or more. Will they win or lose? Do they care? Why do they do it? What happens if they fail? Trainers, grooms, and an equine masseuse help us explore the distinct personalities of three professional racehorses. RTE version includes heartfelt voice-over by the late great John Hurt.
HORSES was released theatrically at London's ICA and Shortlisted for a 2010 Grierson Award in the cinema doc category. It can be streamed on Sundance Selects and Docsville.
"Crisp editing and elegant lensing foster engagement with a narrative that doesn't dumb down the racing world's complexities." – Variety
★★★★ "enjoyable, well made, and thoughtful… by turns informative, gripping and just a little bit odd." – View London
"A pleasure to watch." – The Guardian
TV pick of the day in The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Evening Standard, & Time Out
SHOT IN BOMBAY
BBC STORYVILLE / SUNDANCE CHANNEL
"Sensationally Entertaining" - Metro
With unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to a star-studded, high-octane Bombay gangster movie, SHOT IN BOMBAY tells three entwined stories: the rise of the city’s underworld in the 90s, narrated by ‘Bombay's Dirty Harry'; the tribulations of superstar Sanjay Dutt, on trial for alleged involvement in India’s largest terrorist attack; and a young director’s dogged quest to master the delicate art of making a Bollywood blockbuster.
Cinema release at London’s ICA, many international film festivals including South x Southwest, Sheffield Docfest. Streaming on Docsville.
★★★★ "Absolutely fascinating" - Time Out London
"Her keen eye for ironies and quiet wit make for superior, very entertaining documentary." - The Telegraph
"Riveting" - Financial Times
"Fascinating" - The Times
"Extremely entertaining" - View London
"Mind-blowing" - Total Film
DOOM SCROLL: ANDREW TATE AND THE DARK SIDE OF THE INTERNET
SKY DOCUMENTARIES
★★★★ “A thoughtful look at the darker forces that gave birth to him. It is impossible to watch this documentary and not feel the urge to log off every social media device on your phone. For good.” - The Standard
How does a self-professed misogynist become one of the world’s most influential people, and remain so even after being charged with rape and human trafficking?This documentary feature goes beyond the headlines and back over the past two decades to explore how and why Tate could take hold of so many millions of young followers. The fast-cut film blends social media clips, news archive, and original interviews to exposes how the carefully-crafted algorithms of the social media platforms have shaped our world with a particular bias towards misogyny. Featuring some of the architects of the algorithms which came to allow extreme, hateful content to proliferate – all in the pursuit of profit - the film provides an entertaining history of social media, while also demystifying Tate's story and interrogating his claims to be helping young men, with revealing contributions from friends and critics.
"Two very good shows in Doomscroll”— The Irish Examiner
Screened at Bertha Dochouse
THE BEAUTY ACADEMY OF KABUL
BBC STORYVILLE
“A spiny, puzzling, and highly entertaining film” – Salon
What happens when a group of hairdressers from America travel to Kabul with the intention of telling Afghan women how to do hair and makeup? Liz's first solo-directed documentary feature, filmed in Kabul in the relatively optimistic days 2003, tracks a unique development project: a shiny new beauty school, funded in part by American beauty-industry mainstays, which sets out to teach the latest cutting, coloring, and perming techniques to practicing and aspiring Afghan hairdressers and beauticians. Filmed with an all-women crew,The Beauty Academy of Kabul offered a rare glimpse into Afghan women’s lives, and documents the poignant and often humorous process through which women with very different experiences of life come to learn about one another.
Premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, garnered many international festival awards.
Released in cinemas across the US by Shadow Distribution. Broadcast in UK on BBC2 and across Europe and Australia..
“Wonderful. A profound reminder of the things that make us human.” – LA Times
“Documents the hilarious, moving and sometimes fractious meeting of diametrically different cultures.” - New York Times
“A classy film - beautifully shot and understated” – The Guardian
FIRST LADIES: MICHELLE OBAMA
CNN ORIGINAL SERIES
“The astonishingly detailed portraits in “First Ladies” are distinguished in their scholarship, mesmerizing in their drama.” — Wall Street Journal
FIRST LADIES is a 6-part series exploring the experiences of iconic US first ladies, narrated by Robin Wright. Liz directed & wrote an extended episode on Michelle Obama, which launched the series in October 2020 - attracting 2.2 million viewers, 88-92% kept watching through the 90 minute slot.
The film explores how Obama’s life experiences shaped her approach to this uniquely undefined and challenging role. Combining interviews with close colleagues and friends, analysis from historians and writers, a vast amount of archive and atmospheric dramatised scenes, the film reveals lessons Obama learned through a gruelling election campaign and her subsequent work to help young people, inspiring unprecedented devotion but also ugly opposition that presaged the divisions we see across the country today.
The series is being distributed internationally by Fremantle Media and was produced by October Films in London. Liz also directed the episode on Nancy Reagan.
Watch more clips, including this moving section on gun violence, here. Both episodes available on HBO Max.
OFFICE TIGERS
BBC STORYVILLE / SUNDANCE CHANNEL
“Mermin’s work is too smart not catch the kinds of East-West ironies she pegged in her previous “The Beauty Academy of Kabul.”… speaks of her curiosity as a filmmaker about her subject.” — VARIETY
A feature-length documentary and mini-series about an office full of young Indian professionals and the executives teaching them the rules of corporate culture. Set in an American-owned out-sourcing company in India, whose clients include the top investment banks in the world, the documentary offers a rare look at cross-cultural corporate training, the lifestyles of young urban professionals in a conservative South Indian city, and at the changes that outsourcing is bringing to India. Comic and dark.
Premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
“The Office for New Statesman readers….Vladimir Nabakov once said satire is a lesson, parody is a game. This fantastic documentary by Liz Mermin is both.” – THE LONDON PAPER
“Engrossing…. Office Tigers looks at a caste system of a 21st century variety – the kind created when a new elite is formed whose mantra is ‘make more money’”. — TIME OUT
“Horrifyingly fascinating.” – RADIO TIMES
ON HOSTILE GROUND
AUBIN PICTURES
Liz’s first film, co-directed with Jenny Raskin, produced by Catherine Gund and Aubin Pictures, this documentary profiles three US abortion providers at a time when those providing abortions were being killed by snipers, sent letters filled with “arsenic”, and having their offices firebombed. The film follows three providers, showing their working and family lives and asking what motivates them to continue despite the risks. Sadly as relevant today as it was in 1999.
The film was funded by foundation grants, including a grant from the MacArthur Foundation. It was distributed in cinemas by Cowboy Pictures and acquired for broadcast by the Sundance Channel.
'‘'On Hostile Ground'….goes looking for heroes in the real world and finds three extraordinary individuals who put their lives on the line daily, motivated purely by their commitment to a cause.” — The New York Times
SELECTED TELEVISION
A Sky Documentaries orginal series, produced by Sky Studios & White Horse Pictures. Directed DAVID FROST vs RICHARD NIXON - the true story behind the closest Richard Nixon ever came to a trial (“when the President does it is IS legal… by definition!”) and DV vs JANE FONDA, exploring the rising tide of anger against the Nixon administration and the power of the anti-War movement.
★★★★★ The Daily Mail
★★★★ “Spellbinding… Mighty documentary-making, both cerebral and emotional” -The Telegraph
2025 Grierson long-list best doc series
FIRST LADIES: NANCY REAGAN
An entertaining and surprising look at possibly the most powerful First Lady in US history, Nancy Reagan - a ferocious promoter and protecter of her husband. The doc explores the bad - various lapses of judgement around home and clothing expenses, her controversial roll in the war on drugs - and the good - the crucial part she played in helping her husband end the cold war. Featuring a particularly moving and humorous interview with Ron Reagan, Jr. and creative dramatic visuals to set the scene and evoke Nancy’s inner experiences.
Produced by October Films for CNN Original series and narrated by Robin Wright, the episode is available on NOW TV & HBO Max.
BLAIR & BROWN: THE NEW LABOUR REVOLUTION
“A stirring, illuminating watch.” — The Guardian
“Brilliant” - The Telegraph
WINNER Best Documentary Series - Broadcasting Press Guild Awards
Critically-acclaimed five-part series composed entirely of first-person recollections and archive, charting the rise and fall of New Labour and the unique friendship and rivalry between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Liz directed Episode two, which begins with the 1997 election victory, reveals the trepidation that they felt coming into government after almost two decades in opposition, and offers the inside story of what is probably Tony Blair’s greatest achievement, the Good Friday Agreement. She conducted over twenty interviews for the show, in which New Labour politicians (including Blair), political advisors, and senior civil servants recounted their memories of the government’s first two years. The Independent called it a “Brilliant retrospective”,
Produced by BBC Studios for BBC2, the series is available on iPlayer.