C4, Barcroft meet conjoined twins

Two Sisters One Body centres on Carmen and Lupita Andrade

Commercially funded UK pubcaster Channel 4 has greenlit a one-off doc about conjoined twins from digital specialist production company Barcroft Studios.

Two Sisters One Body explores the issues of identity, immigration and sacrifice faced by American teenage conjoined twins Carmen and Lupita Andrade.

The pair were initially given three days to live when born in Mexico in 2002 but have survived and thrived through to high school in Connecticut. Now they face a new challenge as immigrants with changing visa status in Donald Trump’s America.

Alf Lawrie, head of factual entertainment at C4, commissioned the film, which is exec produced for Barcroft Studios by John Farrar, Lizzie Wingham and company founder and CEO Sam Barcroft.

Two Sisters One Body was directed, produced and filmed by Jack MacInnes and edited by Craig Cotterill. Banijay Rights holds the global distribution rights outside the US.

Last week, C4 director of programmes Ian Katz said he was pausing scripted commissioning and facing up to making TV for lower tariffs than ever as the virus crisis and struggling ad market leave C4 with 800 hours of productions missing from its schedule and £150m (US$186.41) sliced off its content budget.

Magazine and online publisher Future bought factual TV and digital content outfit Barcroft Studios for £23.5m last November.