Directed by Laura Fairrie and produced by John Battsek and the Academy Award® winning Passion Pictures – along with AGC Studios, CNN Films, and BBC Arts – LADY BOSS: The Jackie Collins Story takes viewers on an immersive journey through the trailblazing life of novelist Jackie Collins. The film which made the BAFTA long list for Best Documentary, had it’s World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2021.

Spinning together fact and fiction, this feature documentary reveals the untold story of a ground-breaking author and her mission to build a one-woman literary empire. Narrated by a cast of Jackie’s closest friends and family, the film shares the private struggles of a woman who became an icon of 1980s feminism whilst hiding her vulnerability behind a carefully crafted, powerful, public persona. The film evolves from a celebration of Jackie’s revolutionary novels – which placed female sexuality at the heart of their storytelling – into a multi-layered deliberation on feminism, family dynamics, and the universal quest to understand how our childhood experiences and early traumas ultimately make us who we are.

The documentary interweaves interviews with Jackie, her family and friends, depictions of Jackie’s most famous fictional character Lucky Santangelo, and audio-book recordings with an extensive, private and unseen archive that was gathered by Jackie Collins throughout her life. This collection of material was discovered by Jackie’s daughters’ after she died and includes glorious home movie footage spanning the 1950s through to the 1990s, Jackie’s handwritten private teenage diaries and unedited manuscripts of her unpublished autobiography.

Tracing the footprint of her story from its beginnings, the film spans Jackie’s entire life, revealing how her childhood, a damaged relationship with her father and a lively sibling rivalry with her sister Joan, informed Jackie’s particular brand of feminism and intense ambition. Ahead of her time, Jackie’s first instinct for sexual freedom and empowerment was born from watching how her mother – a subservient 1950s housewife, was trapped at home. The film follows the journey of a writer whose private teenage diaries show an innate talent for observing the world around her as well as a burning desire to imagine a fantasy outcome for women that consistently turns the double standard on its head.

Modern Films acquired the film from AGC International, the international sales and distribution arm of Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios, and worked closely with the producers, leading publicity agency MILK Publicity (Downton Abbey: The Movie and The White Crow), Collins’ estate and her publisher Simon & Schuster. The team wanted to dig deeper into the crossover of film, literature, design, style, feminism, sexual politics, cultural iconography and self-made women who have pushed boundaries to break ground for themselves and future generations.

Laura Fairrie, Director

“For me LADY BOSS, was always going to be a political film. Jackie Collins has often been dismissed as the “queen of sleaze” but this is to ignore the fact that she consistently wrote female characters that unapologetically demand the sex, careers and lives they want. Her brand of feminism was about sexual freedom and she wrote about female desire in a way that was brave, bold and ahead of its time.”

Lizzie Gillet, Producer

‘Making this film has been a huge honour especially delving into Jackie’s personal archive. We’re incredibly proud of the film which we see as a fabulous, hilarious and deeply moving feminist fairy-tale and we can’t wait to share it with audiences at the Tribeca Film Festival.”