Lindsey Dryden is a British film director, producer and writer.
Dryden was born in Stroud, in Gloucestershire, England. She learned to play piano as a child from her father.[1] She studied at Goldsmiths, University of London, and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts with First Class honours. Dryden has been mentored by The National Film & Television School, Women In Film & Television, 45 Years director Andrew Haigh,[2] and BFI Flare.[3]
Dryden began her career working on television documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4, The History Channel, Current TV and others, before moving into independent film.[4]
Dryden has directed and produced films that have screened at numerous top international festivals, including SXSW, Sundance, Tribeca, True/False, Sheffield Doc/Fest, HotDocs, New York's Lincoln Center and the British Film Institute. Her work has been released theatrically in the UK and US,[5] exhibited at Tate Modern and Tate Britain, streamed on Vogue.com, featured in Elle (magazine), and broadcast on Netflix, PBS, BBC and Channel 4.[6]
Her directing credits include feature documentary Lost and Sound (SXSW, 2012),[7] short documentary Close Your Eyes And Look At Me (True/False, 2009) and Jackie Kay: One Person Two Names, commissioned for Tate Britain's Queer British Art 2017.[8]
For directing Lost and Sound she was nominated Best New UK Filmmaker at Open City Docs and Best Female-Directed Film at Sheffield Doc/Fest.[9] The film went on to screen and win awards at festivals globally, including at ReelAbilities [10] and Napa Valley Film Festival.[11]
Dryden produced SXSW-debuting documentary series Trans In America. One of those short films, Trans In America: Texas Strong, won the Emmy for Outstanding Short Documentary on 24 September 2019[12][13] as well as a Webby Award and a Webby People's Voice Award in May 2019.[14][15]
Dryden produced Sundance award-winning feature documentary Unrest (dir: Jennifer Brea), which premiered in competition at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival,[16] won a Sundance Special Jury Award,[17] won a 2018 Independent Lens Audience Award,[18] and was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2017 Oscars.[19]
Her other producing credits include short documentary Little Ones (dir: Joanna Coates, 2013), and a verite documentary series with the ACLU about transgender civil rights (2018). She co-produced Sheffield Doc/Fest VR award-winning Unrest VR (2017), with Jennifer Brea, Arnaud Colinart and Amaury La Burthe,[20] and in 2013 was nominated Best Producer at Underwire, a festival celebrating female filmmakers, for Little Ones. The film was developed as part of the London Borough Film Fund Challenge.[21]
Dryden is a founding member of Queer Producers Collective and FWD-DOC, a recent Filmmaker-In-Residence at Jacob Burns Film Center in New York, and an artist-in-residence at Somerset House Studios. She frequently consults, mentors, speaks on panels and offers masterclasses, including at Sheffield Doc/Fest and Women In Film & Television. She is the 2019 Simon Relph Memorial Bursary awardee.[22]