The BEST episodes directed by Jane Preston
#1 - Table Dancing Diaries
BBC Documentaries - Season 2012 - Episode 16
At a time when the lap dancing industry is expanding onto every British high street, Table Dancing Diaries is a documentary that unflinchingly explores this world. In December 2011, Secrets, London's largest chain of table dancing clubs, opened its doors to give unprecedented access to the dancers, customers and the backroom staff of their venues. The film offers a direct, intelligent approach that tells fascinating human stories of young women within the industry. Featuring predominantly young female characters, it tells its stories from the perspective of the industry's girls themselves. Their hopes, dreams, beliefs, values, experiences and views reveal the real people behind the make-up and lights. There is no such thing as a typical stripper, and the young women at Secrets are multi-dimensional. Amongst them are university undergraduates, mothers, a world champion kick boxer and recent immigrants, and together they describe themselves as a family, led by their formidable 'house mothers' - the older women who run the day-to-day goings-on in the clubs. A club's house mother is disciplinarian, bodyguard, quality controller and therapist all rolled into one. They have seen it all before and keep all 600 girls across the six clubs on the straight and narrow. The film gives the girls and the 'girls that run the girls' a voice and in doing so explores their lives beyond the stage. Just as Young Doctors gave a fresh, doctor's-eye perspective on the seemingly familiar hospital precinct, this film gives a revealing look at a profession viewed by many as a glamorous career option. Does the reality match the perception?
#2 - Graffiti Wars
Channel 4 (UK) Documentaries - Season 2011 - Episode 35
Graffiti - the work of mindless vandals or creative geniuses? To some it is art, to others it is a sign we've lost control of our cities. Since Roman times graffiti has been a form of anti-establishment rebellion. But today it is transcending social nuisance to gain cultural and artistic credibility, unprecedented prices at auction and even Presidential and Prime Ministerial approval. However, at street level a bitter war is being waged between graffiti writers, street artists and the authorities. While graffiti writers face trial and prison sentences for their art, some street artists' work is lauded and protected behind Perspex. This issue is at the heart of a graffiti war being fought on the streets of London between one of the founding fathers of the British graffiti scene and the most famous street artist in the world. In London over the past 18 months the tension between the camps has played out in a battle of spray cans between supporters of freehand graffiti writer King Robbo and those of his nemesis, the stencil-using street artist Banksy. The "graffiti war" between the two men began in the early 90's but was re-ignited by what was widely seen in some graffiti circles as an unforgiveable transgression of graffiti "rules" by Banksy. It was an act that pulled 80s legend King Robbo out of retirement to retaliate in the place where it all began, the streets. Directed and produced by Jane Preston, the film goes behind enemy lines as the war escalates - until tragic and unforeseen circumstances bring about an unexpected ceasefire.