Someone's Daughter, Someone's Son filmmaker Lorna Tucker named Big Issue ambassador

Lorna Tucker, the director of smash-hit homelessness documentary Someone’s Daughter, Someone’s Son, has been named as a Big Issue Group ambassador.

Tucker became homeless at 14 and spent two years living on the streets where she slept under Waterloo Bridge in London, in and out of sheltered accommodation. She has since made her name as an award-winning film director of feature documentary films.

The most recent documentary – Someone’s Daughter, Someone’s Son – is based on Tucker’s experiences of being homeless, and was released in cinemas last month.

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Lorna Tucker credits the Big Issue with helping her on her remarkable journey and has joined big names like Christopher Eccleston, Daniel Mays and Sophie Winkleman in the mission to lift people out of poverty.

“If it wasn’t for The Big Issue, I would never have escaped a life that was leading me towards only one ending that I can think of. Not only were they responsible for saving my life, but for helping me to see that there was a life for me outside of addiction and homelessness,” said Tucker.

“I am really pleased to be joining Big Issue Group as an official ambassador. The work the organisation does in order to support those locked in poverty is invaluable, especially now, with people facing the worst set of circumstances you can possibly imagine.”

Tucker’s first feature documentary Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist debuted at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in 2018 where the film was chosen for competition. Her second feature documentary Amá, is a powerful film about the sterilisation abuse of Native American women across the United States over the past 60 years.

In 2022, Lorna Tucker completed two feature documentaries; Call me Kate, a docu-drama about Katharine Hepburn for Salon Pictures, which was released in 2023, and Someone’s Daughter, Someone’s Son, which was released this year.

Tucker is the latest big name to become a Big Issue Ambassador. Actors Christopher Eccleston, Daniel Mays and Sophie Winkleman, politician David Lammy, architect George Clarke, prize-winning academic and author and senior firefighter Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, dancer and choreographer Sherrie Silver, youth champion Jack Parsons and comedian Dane Baptiste also represent Big Issue Group as ambassadors.

Big Issue founder Lord John Bird, who appeared in Lorna’s recent film documentary Someone’s Daughter, Someone’s Son, said: “We are so pleased to have Lorna’s voice and influence, especially as someone who has lived experience of what it means to be homeless, to help us raise awareness of the extreme difficulties faced by those at the coalface of poverty.”

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