New film about Izzard's rise to fame

A documentary movie about Eddie Izzard’s rise to fame, made by an ex-girlfriend, is to have its first public screening in London this weekend.

Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story has been directed and written by Sarah Townsend, who dated Izzard for three years from 1999.

Since then, they remained friends and they continue to run the production company Ella Communications together, and she has worked on several of his stand-up videos.

The film uses home videos and archive footage to chart Izzard’s early influences and career progression, touching on subjects such as losing his mother to cancer at a young age, trying his luck as a street entertainer at the Edinburgh Fringe and performing onstage as a transvestite.

Believe is being screened at the Apollo Piccadilly Circus as part of the Raindance Film Festival on Saturday, then at Laemmle Sunset 5 in Los Angeles next week and New York’s Village East Cinema the week after.

The 102-minute documentary is expected to be released on DVD in January.

Here is the trailer:

Published: 1 Oct 2009