Jess Gell is a documentary director, producer, editor and artist raised in Croydon. Her personal documentaries have focused on the lives of artists and family history including Jean Cooke: Delight In the Thing Seen and The Day Frank Died.
Jess has directed and edited several films for arts and cultural heritage organisations and mental health charities including shorts for Inside the Artists Studio (Art on a Postcard / War Child UK), and St Wilfrid’s Hospice, The Power of Words (Status Employment), promotional videos for the WomanUp! Podcast and documentaries about cultural heritage and dance with Apsara Arts - screening at the David Lean Cinema.
As assistant producer she has worked with Emmy/BAFTA-winning producers and directors, including feature-length documentary by Foxtrot Films about women war artists for Sky Arts (2025) and multi-award winning BAFTA-longlisted feature-length documentary Hostile (2022) by Galeforce Films about the hostile environment for migrant communities in the UK.
Jess is available for projects, get in touch at jessgell.com/contact
The Power of Words explores the weight that words hold in our everyday lives, and how we can question, nurture, and shape our relationship with them. Made by filmmaker Jess Gell in collaboration with group members from Status Employment, a mental health and neurodiversity charity supporting people to gain and retain employment. All participants bring their lived experience of facing mental health challenges and/or navigating neurodiversity to the film. What emerges is how the words we choose can change how we think, the judgements we make of ourselves and others and the choice between expressing limitations or possibilities. Filmed at Stanley Arts Croydon.
