Filmmaker Dorothy Allen-Pickard works fluidly across documentary, narrative filmmaking and theatre, and is in production on her debut feature documentary, BFI Doc Society-backed We Did Not Consent, which counts Lena Dunham and US documentarian Matt Wolf as executive producers.
A woman discovers her first boyfriend was an undercover police officer who was spying on her, and joins forces with 66 other UK women with similar experiences to expose systemic abuse. Producers are Good Thing Going, Try Hard Film and Aluna Entertainment, with Together Films and CAA repping sales.
The feature builds on her 2024 short of the same name, backed by The Guardian newspaper, and was developed at a New York UnionDocs lab. It led to an introduction to Wolf and Dunham. “Lena got the political significance, oddness and potential for humour,” says Allen-Pickard. From Wolf she has learnt “how to package a film, and the things you need to think of for financing and distribution”.
She is also developing her debut narrative feature – working title Four Ordinary Women – with BBC Film and Sixteen Films, based on a true story of four women who turned the tables on the UK’s arms trade.
Allen-Pickard grew up in a creative household in southeast London, her mother an artist. She studied French and film at the University of Warwick and remains part of the Breach Theatre company with friends from her degree. She completed a directing fiction MA at Goldsmiths in 2018 and was named best UK new director at 2019’s BFI Future Film Festival.
Key short credits include the BFI and BBC Film-backed Weekend Dad and 2025’s Saving Face, part of her work with Kestrel Theatre Company, a charity that runs workshops in prisons. She says of her work going forwards: “If I can continue to respond to a subject and build the form around that, whether it’s observational doc, a period drama or something very theatrical, that’s my jam.”
Contact: Jessica Stewart, Independent Talent
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