EXCLUSIVE: BAFTA-nominated producer Maxine Gordon (The Hip Hop Years) and Joseph Bushell have launched an indie with a slate of projects including Invisible Front: Kherson about the war in Ukraine.
Marauder Pictures will make docs and narrative features and has brought in Mark Waugh, former global Chief Content Officer at Publicis Groupe, to drive innovation in the financing, marketing and distribution sides of production.
Marauder launches with a slate including co-produced feature documentary Invisible Front: Kherson, which gives a “powerful insight into the human stories behind the Russian occupation of the Ukrainian city, Kherson, and its subsequent liberation”. Headed by Estonian filmmaker Ilmar Raag, it is made with DGTL RLGN (Ukraine) and Traumfabrik (Estonia).
The slate also consists of two shorts both in production: Baby; now screening at festivals and Dirt, which has just wrapped production in Odesa, Ukraine.
The team is also making narrative feature Eight, a high-concept psychological thriller-fantasy exploring pregnancy psychosis. The project will be written by Phoebe Yemi Ara and has already been long listed for the Sundance Feature Film Development Programme.
Gordon is a BAFTA-Nominated Television Producer renowned for her observational documentaries in the UK and U.S., as well as compiling several music documentary series for Channel 4 and the BBC (BAFTA-nommed The Hip Hop Years, Pump Up The Volume, Story of Jamaican Music). Bushell produced Mickey Angelov’s Directorial Debut feature, Dali, for Look Aside Films, which has garnered four nominations at the 2025 Raindance Festival. He is currently one of the on hand producers of the short film Dirt in Ukraine. The pair Bushell and Gordon are the producers behind Simisola Akande’s documentary The Archive: Queer Nigerians made with the BFI Doc Society.
Bushell said: “After dreaming of working in the film industry from an early age, I am very proud to be launching Marauder. We want to find the distinct voices in this industry to tell unique stories. The brand will represent quality, authenticity and originality and empower filmmakers to push the boundaries of storytelling.”
Gordon added: “Coming from an industry era when gatekeeping rather than nurturing talent was the norm, it led me into teaching up-and-coming filmmakers. I’m excited to be back now with the launch of Marauder Pictures, galvanised by a new generation of creatives who unapologetically demand to tell diverse and untold stories.”
