Background

My family background is Empire on my father's side and Holocaust on my mother's side. My Russo/German/Jewish mother Elisabeth Furse was a member of the SOE Escape Lines in France and a founder member of the Association of Cinematograph and Television Technicians (ACTT). She married my father Patrick Furse, artist son of Sir Ralph Furse, former Head of Recruitment at the Colonial Service, after divorcing Peter Haden-Guest, then a dancer. They opened a bistro behind London's Royal Court Theatre which became known in the 1950's and 1960's for my mother's eccentric ways. The arts characterise the families and their branches, including the Whistler, Ravilious, Newbolt and Duckworth relatives.

My early background mixed research for leading UK documentary filmmakers Roger Graef on The Space Between Words and Mike Grigsby on A Life Apart with assistant directing on feature films in the UK and Ireland including Roman Polanski’s Macbeth. I then worked as associate producer/production manager/1st assistant director on low-budget feature films, TV series and drama shorts with independent British filmmakers like Karl Francis, Nick Gifford, Maurice Hatton and Angela Pope.

I later resumed working with Michael Grigsby as his creative collaborator on Living On The Edge and The Time Of Our Lives and as director/writer with Roger Graef as my executive producer on an autobiographical documentary Looks That Kill. (see Acknowledgements)

Mike went on to be the subject of major retrospectives at the UK's National Film Theatre (2004) and France's Dinard Film Festival (2006) in which the three films I worked on with him were highlighted. Roger Graef became the first documentarist to receive the prestigious BAFTA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.