Filmmaker Lucy Van Beek has launched new premium factual production company, Tailfeather Productions.
The new indie is aimed at blue-chip, premium specialist factual documentaries and series for streaming platforms, broadcasters, and cinematic release including forthcoming commissions, “Alexander: The Making of a God” [Netflix] and “Born to Be Wild” [Apple].
Van Beek, who trained with the BBC Natural History Unit, has credits to her name including “Britain from Above” [BBC One] through to “China’s Megatomb Revealed” [National Geographic]. She is a multiple award-winning filmmaker, with seven Emmys, a BAFTA, the New York Film Festival Creative Award, and numerous science and natural history awards.
Lucy van Beek commented; “My mission with Tailfeather is to use the latest research and technology combined with journalistic rigour and compelling storytelling, to craft specialist factual experiences that will resonate with audiences. We want to unlock the past in new ways and to examine the natural world using the very best tools and latest research available to us.”
Van Beek’s career began working on Sir David Attenborough’s “Song of the Earth,” [BBC One] and quickly grew to include the acclaimed “Riders of the Storm,” [National Geographic], “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” [BBC One] “Modern Masters” [BBC One], “Stephen Hawkins Search for a New Earth” [BBC Two] “Britain from Above,” [BBC One], “The Crusades,” [History Channel] “China’s Megatomb Revealed,” [National Geographic] and “The Wonderful World of Puppies.”[BBC Earth/Channel 5]. Lucy van Beek also worked at Lion TV in a senior creative role (freelance) between 2005 – 2009 before joining Brooklapping, going on to run Blakeway from 2015 – 2020.
Her first commission for Tailfeather Productions is in association with former employer Lion Television to create Alexander: The Making of a God co-exec’d with Lion TV’s Nick Catliff. To tell Alexander’s story the six-part docuseries incorporates robust contemporary accounts and fact-based archaeology, much of which is based on ongoing excavations being undertaken by Greek archaeologist Calliope Limneos-Papakosta in Alexandria, Egypt. The series premieres globally on Netflix on Jan. 31.
Her second commission, Born to be Wild, is a co-production with Offspring Films for Apple TV. The six-part nature documentary series, follows six rare young animals for several years, as they are brought up in our world, but destined to return to theirs, to rewild their homelands and help save their species. Using the latest camera and tracking technology, the series follows the journey of a Savanna elephant calf, two young cheetahs, a ring-tailed lemur pup, a moon bear cub, Iberian lynx kits and orphaned African penguins, from birth, or their first few months of life, through to release and beyond, into the wild.
Jon Creamer
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