Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn: In Person Screening and Q&A

WFTV members are invited to this special screening of Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn, directed by the great unheralded composer’s descendant Sheila Hayman.

Anyone who has been to a wedding has enjoyed the soaring musical genius of Felix Mendelssohn. His Wedding March may be the best-known classical composition of all time. But Felix was not the only genius in the family; meet his brilliant sister Fanny, whose unknown Easter Sonata surfaced in 1972.

Director Sheila Hayman, three times great granddaughter of Fanny, reveals the extraordinary life of a composer long neglected by the music world and goes on a quest to prove that the lost masterpiece attributed to Felix was actually composed by Fanny. Piano prodigy Isata Kanneh-Mason brings the beauty of Fanny’s music to life in this story of a very modern woman who happened to live 200 years ago.

Prior to the screening, there will be a reception and intro with director Sheila Hayman and executive producers Kelly Sweeney, Maureen Murray and Annabel Hobley. The Q&A will be moderated by WFTV CEO, Katie Bailiff.

Wednesday 5th July, 12:30

Everyman Kings Cross, 14-18 Handyside St, London N1C 4DN (nearest tube: Kings Cross / St Pancras)

Event Schedule:

12:30: Arrivals and drinks reception

13:30: Intro and conversation with director Sheila Hayman and producers Kelly Sweeney, Maureen Murray and Annabel Hobley. The Q&A will bemoderated by WFTV CEO, Katie Bailiff

14:00: Film screening to begin

Sheila Hayman, Director

Sheila has written and directed documentary films for the BBC, Channel 4, ARTE, Beijing TV and others, winning a BAFTA, Time Out Documentary Series of the Year (‘The Big Company’, C4), and a Robert Kennedy award ‘(Finding a Voice’ BBC/PBS Nova).

She has been UK Young Journalist of the Year, the BAFTA/Fulbright Fellow in Los Angeles, a columnist for The Guardian newspaper, and a Director’s Fellow of the MIT Media Lab. In 2020 she was Artist in Residence at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. She also coordinates a creative writing and performance group at UK NGO Freedom from Torture, working to help refugees as her father was helped in the 1930s.

Her films and digital projects about music in different genres have included The Rewrite of Spring with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Barbican Centre, 100 Million Musicians about Western classical music in China, and an interactive performance with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. On its release, her BBC film Mendelssohn, The Nazis and Me was nominated for the Grierson Arts Documentary of the Year and is still in demand for festivals around the world. The Other Mendelssohn is its creative (and literal!) sibling.

Kelly Sweeney, Producer

Kelly Sweeney joined Mercury Studios in March 2021 at SVP, Production and oversees the entire slate from documentaries (My Life As A Rolling Stone, Shania Twain: Not Just A Girl) to concert capture and live streams, shortfrom, podcasts and scripted projects.

Prior to this she was at YouTube Originals and The Walt Disney Company running International Production for both companies across a wide variety of award-winning programming.

Maureen Murray, Exec Producer

Executive Producer Murray is a passionate advocate of female directors. She was one of the first members of Women in Film & Television UK and has served on the board. She is a Producer Member of the Production Guild of Great Britain and BAFTA with long standing experience of international co-production and has mentored for WFTV and the Grierson Foundation’s DocLab.

Annabel Hobley, Exec Producer

As an award-winning executive producer and showrunner for premium factual, history and arts films with a twist, Annabel has spent her career making shows for the world’s top broadcasters, SVODs and AVODs in the UK, US and China.

She has just had the pleasure of exec-ing feature doc Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn through Mercury Studios, having recently made contemporary archive series Rise of the Billionaires through 72 Films and a hugely ambitious, multilingual BBC Studios/Chinese SVOD documentary series, labelled ‘Blue Planet for Tea’.

As a writer, Annabel co-authored Shopgirls: The True Story of Life Behind the Counter with Dr Pamela Cox; she also writes articles and lectures at history societies and universities.

This event is for existing WFTV members only.

If you are not a member and would like to join, membership costs just £100 + VAT/yr , please click here or email admin@wftv.org.uk

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