Jane Treays

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Jane Treays is a British documentary filmmaker from Cornwall who has been making work since 1984. She is best known for Inside Claridge’s (2012) and Painted Babies (1996). She has two children and was married to fellow filmmaker David Pearson; they are now divorced.

Treays started as a BBC researcher in 1984, working on Our House. In 1988 she produced The Diary of Jack Dancy for Timewatch. In 1995 she produced Situation Vacant, a six-part BBC Two series about the Royal Marines’ endurance tests. She also made a film about traveling with The Rolling Stones on tour, but it was never broadcast.

She is described as a filmmaker who asks blunt questions and captures telling moments. Critics compare her with Molly Dineen, Lucy Blakstad, and Nick Broomfield. The Guardian praised Inside Claridge’s for her quiet, persistent approach and noted how her off-screen questions shaped the conversations.

Her film True Stories: Men in the Woods (2001) drew mixed reviews—mostly interesting but sometimes melodramatic or self-indulgent. Some scholars see it as feminist autobiography, highlighting how telling traumatic childhood memories can feel like a dreamlike retelling.

Treays is Cornish. She and David Pearson have two children and are now divorced. She has said that filmmaking gets better with life experiences, including having children and coping with sadness, and that knowing yourself and treating people with tenderness are important. She believes everything she makes is born from love and explores love in its many forms.