The influential documentary producer Jess Search, who co-founded the non-profit Doc Society organisation, has died of brain cancer at the age of 54.
She was involved in hundreds of projects including the overfishing documentary The End of the Line, the gorilla protection film Virunga, and the Oscar-winning Citizenfour, about the whistleblower Edward Snowden.
After working as a commissioning editor in the documentaries department at Channel 4, Search founded the Britdoc Foundation in 2005 with the backing of her former employer. Over time this morphed into the Doc Society, which worked with film-makers around the world to produce and fund documentaries.
Her colleagues said she her final wish was to secure the Doc Society’s ability to make films about “the two critical and intertwined issues of climate change and democracies in crisis”.
The Doc Society said in a statement announcing Search’s death: “Jess lived fully these last few weeks. In characteristic humour, she responded to her diagnosis by considering herself a ‘Lucky Fucker’, having lived a life of purpose on her own terms.
“She continued to send late-night voice memos, order rounds of margaritas, and bring together an amalgam of global comrades around the shared mission of vital system-shifting narrative work to change the world for the better.
“To the horror of some, she did all this while sporting a pair of hot pink Crocs, with socks and jibbitz, in glorious contrast to her trademark white suit she rocked at Good Pitches all over the world.”
The organisation said a celebration of Search’s life would be planned in the coming months.
”A beloved partner and parent, a brilliant friend, an industry catalyst, master campaigner, consummate producer, preternatural public convener, and mentor to many, Jess leaves a global family who we know will continue to speak out on injustice, challenge the status quo and live lives of purpose with love in their hearts. We consider ourselves to be Lucky Fuckers to stand beside all of you.”
Kat Mansoor, a film producer who worked with Search on projects including Here’s Johnny and Cow, said the documentary industry had lost a champion. She said: “She was genuinely trying to change a landscape that is so difficult to traverse. She was a real believer in culture and art as mediums for change.
“She was behind big films that won Oscars and were Bafta-nominated and they all had powerful messages. She fought for them and she made them happen. She fought for the industry and we’re going to have to take up the mantle so we can continue to make films that change minds and move people.”
Search announced her illness last month, saying her organisation operated on a flat power-sharing model and its work would continue under her five co-leaders. She said she was “extremely calm and have literally everything I need” and signed off with a quote from Marcus Aurelius and a playlist of her favourite music.
In her final message, she called on the documentary-making community to “triple-down and build rocket boosters for our shared work”. She also called on distributors, funders and commissioners help to build “a new, equitable, and politically protected indie media distribution system”.
Search said she believed in the power of documentaries to change the world. She said: “To deal with the climate crisis and realise a just transition, the world needs more democracy; the negotiation of a new social contract between people and the state. Doc Society is centring all we have learned in narrative strategy over the past two decades to help address these two critical and intertwined issues.”
Her colleagues said she died peacefully on Monday, surrounded by her family, including her partner, Beadie Finzi, and their children Ella and Ben.
