As Great Britain’s forces were stretched thin during World War II, Winston Churchill’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) began to enlist women as spies. Their daunting mission: conduct sabotage and build a resistance. Spymistress Vera Atkins, later the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond franchise, was the chief recruiter for this secret army. Atkins selected two unusual candidates: Virginia Hall, an American journalist from Baltimore hampered by a wooden leg, and Noor Inayat Khan, a wireless officer of Indian descent and an avowed pacifist. Together, they worked to undermine the Nazi regime in France. The courage, sacrifices and grit of these three women helped quell the Nazi occupation – and ultimately turned the tide of the war.
Lydia Dean Pilcher is founder of the New York based production company, Cine Mosaic. She is a two time Emmy Award winner and Oscar nominated producer of over 40 feature films with auteur directors including Gina Prince-Bythewood, Katja Von Garnier, Wes Anderson, Barry Levinson, Ritesh Batra, Kathryn Bigelow, George Wolfe, and twelve films in a longstanding collaboration with internationally acclaimed director Mira Nair. Recently they completed the six hour mini-series, “A Suitable Boy” set in India, based on the novel by Vikram Seth for BBC/Netflix.
Pilcher began her career directing documentaries and in 2018 she co-directed the feature, Radium Girls, starring Joey King and Abby Quinn, releasing theatrically Fall 2020. Recently she directed A Call to Spy, a female-driven World War II spy thriller based on the true stories of Noor Inayat Khan, Vera Atkins, and Virgina Hall, currently in release with IFC Films.
Pilcher has worked extensively in the international realm and is inspired by themes of cultural strategy, climate change activism, and social & economic justice. She is a co-founder of PGA WIN and PGA Green which is partnered with 11 studios in GreenproductionGuide.com, a site with tools and resources for carbon emission strategies on film & tv sets.
Pilcher is an adjunct faculty at Tisch NYU Graduate Film & Television teaching a class on Audience and Cultural Strategy. She co-authored, “The Ms. Factor: The Power of Female Driven Content.”
