SIMON CHANNING WILLIAMS

We are very sad to announce that our founder, Simon Channing Williams, died of cancer on Saturday afternoon the 11th of April, at home with his family in Cornwall. He was 63 years old.

Simon began his career at the BBC where he worked with, amongst others, Stephen Frears, James MacTaggart, Mike Newell, Michael Apted and Mike Leigh with whom he went on to produce 11 films.

Together with Leigh, he formed Thin Man Films in 1988, producing many critically-acclaimed films such as Palme D’Or winner ‘Secrets & Lies’, Oscar® winner ‘Topsy-Turvy’ and Oscar®‘nominated Vera Drake’ which also won the Golden Lion at Venice. ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’ was their final production.

Outside his relationship with Mike Leigh and Thin Man Films, Simon produced a number of other films, including ‘Puccini’ with director Tony Palmer, ‘When the Whales Came’ directed by Clive Rees and the UK box-office hit, ‘Jack and Sarah’ directed by Tim Sullivan. He also produced Nick Love’s debut feature, ‘Goodbye Charlie Bright’.

In 2000 he formed the independent production company Potboiler Productions with Gail Egan. Together they produced seven feature films including a classic adaptation of ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ directed by Douglas McGrath, the rock epic ‘Brothers of the Head’ directed by Keith Fulton & Lou Pepe, and the Oscar®-winning ‘The Constant Gardener’ directed by Fernando Meirelles.

He and Egan also executive produced Fernando Meirelles’ ‘Blindness’, starring Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo and Gael Garcia Bernal. Potboiler also acquired the rights to John le Carre's two most recent novels ‘The Mission Song’ and 'A Most Wanted Man'.

Simon was instrumental in setting up The Constant Gardener Trust which is building a secondary school in the desert town of Loiyangalani some 600 km north of Nairobi. The school will be completed by the end of 2009. The Trust were the first to build wash blocks and lavatories in the Nairobi slum of Kibera and also installed three 10,000- litre water towers. In recognition of his services to the community, Channing Williams was made an Elder of Loiyangalani and, in December 2007, he received Kenya’s Order of the Grand Warrior from President Kibaki in honour of his work on both the film ‘The Constant Gardener’ film and the trust established in its name.

Channing Williams is survived by his wife Annie, five children (three with his second wife Dorothy King, two with Annie) and five grandchildren.

A private funeral will be held this week and a memorial service in London is planned for a later date. The family have requested that in lieu of other tributes, donations may be made to the Royal Marsden Cancer Campaign: http://www.royalmarsden.org/Campaign/Home/

The film was shot predominantly in Kenya and during filming the cast and crew decided to set up The Constant Gardener Trust, an organization that, initially, would help specifically the communities they had met and worked with
during the shoot.

Our aim is to help improve basic sanitation and education for those that are most in need of our help.

We are a small organization, hoping to achieve big things and a new ethos of responsible filmmaking along the way, but we know that the best and most lasting change comes through careful thought and collaboration with the people we are trying to help.

You can help, today, by giving a small donation and knowing that it will go directly to the people who need it. We have minimal overheads and direct links with those that we are helping. We know that small amounts of money can make a great deal of difference if used wisely.

Please take a look at the projects we have already funded and those that we are continuing with, as well as our future plans, and if you need any more information, please contact us.

Thank you for helping.