PIP FILMS

Bringing The Finance Curse to Screen

When a documentary sets out to examine how financial power shapes democracies, the film itself has to be built to withstand scrutiny. That was the challenge facing Pip Films CIC, the Community Interest Company behind The Finance Curse – a feature documentary exploring how financialisation reshapes economies, politics, and public life, told through case studies spanning the United Kingdom, the United States, and the offshore finance sector.

Pro Publico connected Pip Films CIC with Steptoe, where partner Anne-Gabrielle Haie matched the request with her colleague Elliot Letts, who took on a detailed legal review of the film ahead of release, assessing its potential exposure to libel and defamation claims across the jurisdictions the film touches.

A film built on testimony, archive, and scrutiny

The Finance Curse combines original interviews, whistleblower testimony, and archive footage drawn from years of news and current-affairs coverage. It is directed by Leo Hyde and produced by John Christensen, whose previous work – including The End of Poverty?, HSBC: Les Gangsters de la Finance, and The Spider’s Web – has reached audiences in the tens of millions and established both as experienced voices in documentary filmmaking on financial power and offshore secrecy.

Ahead of finishing post-production, the film had already been shown to roughly 80 test-screening viewers, with the feedback gathered feeding directly into revisions made ahead of the fine cut.

Why the legal review mattered

For an independent documentary like this one, legal risk isn’t just a creative concern – it’s a practical gatekeeper to release. Pip Films CIC is working on a deliberately constrained budget, a choice made to preserve the film’s editorial independence. But that same independence means the production doesn’t have in-house legal resources to stress-test the film’s claims against UK and international defamation standards.

Without that review, the film also can’t move forward on errors and omissions insurance covering defamation and related risks – cover that is, in practice, a prerequisite for distributors and broadcasters to carry the film at all. Pro bono legal support gave Pip Films CIC a path through that bottleneck without compromising the budget that protects the film’s independence.

How the collaboration worked

Steptoe’s review proceeded as a structured back-and-forth: the legal team raised a series of questions on the film’s claims and sourcing, and Pip Films CIC worked through detailed responses grounded in the underlying interviews, testimony, and archive material. That exchange shaped the firm’s final report and recommendations.

What comes next

With the legal review complete, Pip Films CIC’s next step is securing E&O insurance covering defamation and associated risks – the last major milestone standing between the film and release – which is expected to screen on 8 September, pending final confirmation.

For Pro Publico, the case is a clear example of what pro bono legal support can unlock for independent, mission-driven media: not just risk mitigation, but the practical ability to get a film made on tight resources into a position where broadcasters, distributors, and insurers can stand behind it.

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