About
Who are we?
Roaring Girl Productions (RGP) is a creative media company working in film, audio, text and performance. We combine high quality creative work with practical activism.
RGP was founded in 1999 by artist-activist Liz Crow and is based in Bristol, UK. We began in response to the lack of representation of disabled people across the widest range of media. We wanted to be a part of the solution and have worked to create fresh portrayals that disabled people can recognise and non-disabled people will be challenged by. We demonstrate inclusion in our production processes, raising awareness of the benefits that this way of working can bring to creative work, and pioneer new approaches to audience access. In all things, we use our work as a tool for change, taking audiences beyond spectatorship to become a part of creating change.
What have we produced?
Our award-winning work has presented to audiences around the world. Highlights include:
• Frida Kahlo’s Corset, screened at Tate Modern alongside the retrospective of Kahlo’s paintings
• The Real Helen Keller, made for Channel 4, with Ann Pugh and Redweather Productions
• Nectar, which won prizes across the board at Milan’s International Cinema and Video Festival of the Deaf
• The four combined Resistance projects, including an interactive installation, currently touring, and Liz Crow’s controversial and celebrated appearance on Antony Gormley’s Fourth Plinth
The central themes of our work are identity, resistance, survival and, underscoring everything, hope. The themes are universal. The characters in our creative work are searching for a place in the world: some have to wriggle much more than others to find that ‘fit’, but finding your place in the world is part of being human.
Our work ranges from the pictorial to the confrontational. Many of our films are available to buy or hire. Please see the relevant production pages for more details.
How do we work?
Cumulatively, we have brought hidden histories and new perspectives to the attention of audiences by using a range of media. Our productions repeatedly demonstrate the possibilities and benefits of working inclusively and we have gained a reputation for continually pushing the boundaries of audience access.
Our goal is to take audiences beyond the simple telling of a story, to look at how they can be informed and inspired to take action by applying the ideas and practices communicated in our films. The means and the medium used in each film are defined by the story it tells.
Roaring Girl Productions is pioneering new approaches to film accessibility for audiences with a sensory impairment, making audio description, captioning and sign language interpretation (ACS) an integral part of the creative and production processes. Experimenting within our own productions, we incorporate accessibility into the creative planning at the very beginning of a project. We also test out innovative approaches and trial them with audiences and filmmakers.
We are a tiny core team whose numbers ebb and flow according to the scale of the project and the phase of production. Over the years, our work has been made possible by the generosity of our funders and the hard graft and support of dozens of committed individuals and organisations.
