Ilze Millere
Ambassador Ilze Millere is an independent filmmaker with a passion for the environment, sustainability, female empowerment and mental health. She is the co-director of independent film production company Elementi Media and writes a sustainability blog, ZeroSet.
Since her early teenage years, Ilze knew she wanted to be a film director. She started to explore this art with little films back in her home country of Latvia. She moved to the UK to study film at university, graduating with a Media Production degree, which she passed with distinction.
Ilze now works as a film director, writer and producer. Her first short film Bus Stop (2018) received a festival selection. Further films that she has directed and often written and/or produced continue to be recognized in film festivals around the world.
Ilze and her partner Carl Bradshaw set up Elementi Media in early 2019 with the goal of creating uniquely expressive, creative films with inspirational and moving stories. Their current theme concentrates on the humanity, emotions, dreams, fears and other aspects of the human condition and exploring those through visually and audibly rich films, filled with symbolism, metaphors and experimental elements.
Their first short relationship drama Promise (2019) explores a broken relationship and depression, followed by a short war drama Sunset (2019) which follows a dying soldier who struggles with post-traumatic stress and hallucinates figures from his life. Their first major production – the 40-minute long experimental drama Quadratura (2019) follows a girl who looks back at her life through a journey of emotions and memories and is structured around the five stages of grief.
Ilze is collaborating with Mental Ideas to help co-produce her first feature film, which she wrote and is directing. This dark modern fantasy about obsessive love is called Limerence. It explores multiple mental health aspects, including obsessive behaviors, fear of abandonment, anxiety and post-traumatic stress.
Ilze has been affected by mental health issues a few times in her life, especially obsessive behaviors and when dealing with grief after losing someone very close. Suffering multiple physical anxiety symptoms earlier this year led her to leave her full-time job and fully concentrate on her own well-being and creativity. She believes that sharing stories about mental health in her films is the best way to educate audiences about these issues and learn how to recognize and understand them better.
Ilze is passionate about female empowerment. She is drawn to making films about interesting, complex and strong female characters that are often the protagonists in her films. She is also passionate about nature and plastic-free living. In 2019 she started her blog about sustainable living and filmmaking, called ZeroSet. She finds inspiration and strength in nature, which is where most of her ideas come from.
You must be logged in to post a comment.