Documentary Community Pays Tribute to Jess Search, ‘Virunga’ Producer and Co-Founder of Doc Society: She ‘Defined Being a Luminary’

Messages have been pouring in to pay tribute to Jess Search, producer and co-founder of U.K.’s Doc Society, who died Monday from brain cancer at the age of 54.

Search was a founding director of Doc Society, the mission of which is to “unleash the transformational power of documentary film to address the two critical and intertwined issues of climate change and democracies in crisis.”

Before that, she was a commissioning editor at Channel 4 and a founder of Shooting People, the online filmmakers network. She was also a board member of the U.K. think tank IPPR. She moderated panel discussions for IDFA, the Skoll World Forum, the Trust Women conference, and Doc Society’s Good Pitch.

Search was nominated for an Emmy for “Virunga.” Her recent executive producer credits included “F@ck This Job,” “Welcome to Chechnya” and “Cold Case Hammarskjöld.”

British Film Institute CEO Ben Roberts said: “I think Jess would be anti-tributes but invoking her rebel spirit we honor her legacy regardless. What a remarkable human who did so much to champion truth and justice through storytelling. I’ve rarely witnessed someone so utterly dedicated to her work.”

TV presenter, writer, actor, director and comedian Sue Perkins, whose series “Perfectly Legal” is on Netflix, said: “I’ve never known another human be more resolutely themselves. I marvelled at her; her authenticity and fearlessness – her charm and her strength. I owe her more than I can say. She made me feel it was ok to be who I was, at a time when I felt nothing but shame.”