Over the last 20 years, Olly has created a body of work that often combines journalistic rigour with powerful documentary storytelling, making films that reveal the complexities of international events through the eyes of ordinary people at the frontline of events.  He’s made films in Syria, Afghanistan, Gaza and Iraq, often featuring characters from two warring sides.

His latest film, a co-production for the BBC and PBS features interviews with leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as senior commanders in the IDF, and draws on an archive of over 120 hours of footage that was filmed on a single day in Gaza last year.  How does he go about getting both sides of the story in such difficult and complex situations? And what what’s it like taking on such controversial and highly sensitive subject matter?

One Day in Gaza (58”) is a highly immersive film which reveals, moment by moment, what happened on May 14th 2018 – a day planned as a peaceful protest against the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem, but which resulted in one of Gaza’s deadliest days of violence for a generation.  Following the screening, Olly will talk to Gabriel Gatehouse about the making of the film and reveals the challenges, jeopardies and difficulties he encountered before, during and after production.

Critical praise for ‘One Day in Gaza’:

• “This astonishing documentary had a clarity that coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict has lacked for years”       The Guardian
• “Superlative”  The Telegraph
• “An extraordinary work”   The Times

Main image: Copyright: MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Images

This conference is aimed freelance camera operators and photographers. The idea is to explore how to produce first class video and make it relevant today. We will be looking at the latest trends in broadcast, online and social video, storytelling, explore how to pitch your ideas and get them commissioned – and discuss the very latest innovations in filmmaking.

This is a practical day of tips and advice to help freelancers and aspiring filmmakers succeed in the industry. There will be a series of presentations, masterclasses, demonstrations and panel discussions.

An introduction to video in 2017

David Hayward will give and introduction to the state of the video industry in 2017. He’ll discuss the latest trends in video from the broadcast, online and social media perspective.

Video Storytelling Masterclass with Vin Ray

An introduction to video storytelling. Moving from the basic elements of television and video packaging through to the most sophisticated scripting techniques to help you improve your storytelling. Vin Ray will explore how everyone, from newcomers to experienced professionals, can improve their films and storytelling.

Pitching masterclass with Pervez Khan

The skill of successful pitching is an art form. You need to understand exactly what commissioners want and how to sell the story, the concept and the film to them. Perez Khan is an award winning the documentary series producer and renowned filmmaker. He will guide you through the pitching process and how to get your films commissioned.

Meet the commissioners – panel discussion

The first session of the afternoon is an informal panel discussion with some of the key commissioners from the broadcast and online media industry. We will look at the stories they want, the type of films they are commissioning at the moment – and how to pitch your ideas to them

Creating and telling a story across a multi-platform – with Tom Jenkins, The Guardian

Tom will discuss how he developed and pitched his ideas for stories and bringing them to fruition with The Guardian on Line video, text and in print.

 Innovation, Filmmaking and where next for video with Dr David Dunkley-Gyimah.

In this keynote address, Dr David Dunkley Gyimah will look at the ways video journalism and filmmaking are developing through technology and creative innovation. He will discuss the latest storytelling techniques, the future of the industry and how the most inventive videos are being produced in 2017.

Daughters of Bangladesh Garment Factory Workers is a short documentary which follows the personal stories of 5 girls aged between 7 and 15. The film gives an intimate insight into their world, their relationships with their mothers and how factory work shapes their lives. Daughters of Bangladesh is Lensational’s first video journalism project featuring and created by the daughters themselves. This film advocates for corporations to commit to supply chain transparency as well as advancing the welfare of the most vulnerable workers and their families.

Lensational is an award-winning, non-profit social enterprise, with the mission of empowering women through photography and videography. For Daughters of Bangladesh Garment Factory Workers, they have partnered with Rainbow Collective, a documentary producer focused on human, children and social rights, to create a film as a part of an ongoing media training scheme at Nagorik Uddyog, offering children of garment workers a route into further education.

The Q&A discussion following the film will focus on the unheard voices of overlooked women in journalism and how to get these narratives into the public eye. The girls in the film are able to share their personal stories with the world on how garment factory work affects their lives indirectly, reflecting a variety of emotions and capturing moments of intimate visual stories. Our speakers, with a range of journalistic experiences will focus on how best to continue to empower women such as the girls in the film.

Watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldp2-a1DG2c&app=desktop

Moderator

Lucile Stengel: Head of Social Media and editor Lensational

Lucile currently works for the BBC World Service, where she dedicates her time to understanding and better servicing the BBC’s audience in developing countries, as well as developing a new impact framework for the organisation. Lucile has a particular interest in the interplay of gender, culture, and the media, an area she has been researching since university. She holds a BSc in Political Science, a MA in Global Communications and Strategy, and a MSc in Local Economic Development from Sciences Po and the LSE. She has developed a repertoire of research and strategy skills in her previous experiences across the media and third sector, and regularly contributes to gender and social justice publications.

Speakers

Richard York is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Rainbow Collective

Alongside their own award-winning broadcast and cinematic documentaries (Al Jazeera, Britdoc, SABC), Rainbow Collective have designed and facilitated projects in countries including Bangladesh, Jamaica, South Africa, Cambodia and Turkey, empowering marginalised children and adults to produce powerful and effective documentaries and animation. The films their students produce have proved equally at home screening at international film festivals as they are at the centre of campaigns for real social change. Since 2008 Rainbow Collective have worked closely with garment working communities and trade unions to improve working and living conditions through films and training projects, including playing a key role in the successful campaign to secure full compensation for the families affected and bereaved by the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh.

Radio can be an incredibly powerful way to tell a story, and it’s a growing medium. This one-day course will get you started with some of the key techniques of radio documentary making.

You’ll cover the editorial essentials such as spotting an idea, building a narrative structure, finding the right contributors, as well as how to use sound creatively to grab the listener’s attention. There’ll also be tips on pitching ideas to programme editors or commissioning executives.

During the day, you’ll get hands on experience of working out a story and learning how to pitch it. You’ll hear lots of inspiring audio, and analyse the techniques used, and you’ll learn some of the principles involved in capturing the listener’s attention, and how to hold it.

At the end of the course you will have a better understanding of the potential of radio, and should be in a good position to pitch to broadcasters such as BBC Radio 4 and the World Service, or making audio features and documentaries for online broadcasters.

The course would suit those from other media or communications disciplines who are thinking of broadening their skill base as well as those completely new to the field.

About the trainers:
David Prest and Deborah Dudgeon of Whistledown Productions will teach the course. Whistledown is the largest provider of speech programmes to BBC Radio, providing landmark series such as Radio 4’s The Reunion, and Feedback, as well as a wide range of features and documentaries. Whistledown also works with universities and commercial clients to make podcasts and audio guides.

Image: via Shutterstock / MAFord

Radio can be an incredibly powerful way to tell a story, and it’s a growing medium. This one-day course will get you started with some of the key techniques of radio documentary making.

You’ll cover the editorial essentials such as spotting an idea, building a narrative structure, finding the right contributors, as well as how to use sound creatively to grab the listener’s attention. There’ll also be tips on pitching ideas to programme editors or commissioning executives.

During the day, you’ll get hands on experience of working out a story and learning how to pitch it. You’ll hear lots of inspiring audio, and analyse the techniques used, and you’ll learn some of the principles involved in capturing the listener’s attention, and how to hold it.

At the end of the course you will have a better understanding of the potential of radio, and should be in a good position to pitch to broadcasters such as BBC Radio 4 and the World Service, or making audio features and documentaries for online broadcasters.

The course would suit those from other media or communications disciplines who are thinking of broadening their skill base as well as those completely new to the field.

About the trainers:
David Prest and Deborah Dudgeon of Whistledown Productions will teach the course. Whistledown is the largest provider of speech programmes to BBC Radio, providing landmark series such as Radio 4’s The Reunion, and Feedback, as well as a wide range of features and documentaries. Whistledown also works with universities and commercial clients to make podcasts and audio guides.

Image: via Shutterstock / MAFord

Radio can be an incredibly powerful way to tell a story, and it’s a growing medium. This one-day course will get you started with some of the key techniques of radio documentary making.

You’ll cover the editorial essentials such as spotting an idea, building a narrative structure, finding the right contributors, as well as how to use sound creatively to grab the listener’s attention. There’ll also be tips on pitching ideas to programme editors or commissioning executives.

During the day, you’ll get hands on experience of working out a story and learning how to pitch it. You’ll hear lots of inspiring audio, and analyse the techniques used, and you’ll learn some of the principles involved in capturing the listener’s attention, and how to hold it.

At the end of the course you will have a better understanding of the potential of radio, and should be in a good position to pitch to broadcasters such as BBC Radio 4 and the World Service, or making audio features and documentaries for online broadcasters.

The course would suit those from other media or communications disciplines who are thinking of broadening their skill base as well as those completely new to the field.

About the trainers
David Prest and Deborah Dudgeon of Whistledown Productions will teach the course. Whistledown is the largest provider of speech programmes to BBC Radio, providing landmark series such as Radio 4’s The Reunion, and Feedback, as well as a wide range of features and documentaries. Whistledown also works with universities and commercial clients to make podcasts and audio guides.

Image: via Shutterstock / MAFord

Radio can be an incredibly powerful way to tell a story, and it’s a growing medium. This one-day course will get you started with some of the key techniques of radio documentary making.

You’ll cover the editorial essentials such as spotting an idea, building a narrative structure, finding the right contributors, as well as how to use sound creatively to grab the listener’s attention. There’ll also be tips on pitching ideas to programme editors or commissioning executives.

During the day, you’ll get hands on experience of working out a story and learning how to pitch it. You’ll hear lots of inspiring audio, and analyse the techniques used, and you’ll learn some of the principles involved in capturing the listener’s attention, and how to hold it.

At the end of the course you will have a better understanding of the potential of radio, and should be in a good position to pitch to broadcasters such as BBC Radio 4 and the World Service, or making audio features and documentaries for online broadcasters.

The course would suit those from other disciplines who are thinking of broadening their skill base whether print, TV or video journalists, or other communications professionals.

About the trainers
David Prest and Deborah Dudgeon of Whistledown Productions will teach the course. Whistledown is the largest provider of speech programmes to BBC Radio, providing landmark series such as Radio 4’s The Reunion, and Feedback, as well as a wide range of features and documentaries. Whistledown also works with universities and commercial clients to make podcasts and audio guides.

Image: via Shutterstock / MAFord

“I hope you enjoy the film half as much as I enjoyed making it. Apart from the crazy bit,” director Morgan Matthews said on Monday 17 March at the Frontline Club as he introduced his new documentary Shooting Bigfoot in association with BBC Storyville.

Warning: Contains spoilers.

Director Morgan Matthews discusses his latest documentary, Shooting Bigfoot.

Following Bigfoot hunters across Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Ohio San Antonio, Shooting Bigfoot is an hilarious and at times heart pounding documentary. It starts with Matthews innocently following the ‘researchers’ and ‘trackers’ on the hunt for towering hairy creatures and ends with him getting a black eye in a torch-lit chase through the trees, reminiscent of the Blair Witch project.

After the screening Matthews answered questions from the audience, one of the first of which was: Who hit you?

“I prefer leaving it open ended . . . for people to make their own minds up. I don’t think it was Bigfoot.”

Matthews said that it seemed inevitable that he would be set up whilst filming but didn’t know from who or when and that he started to doubt and second guess everything he saw:

“When I heard those noises, I thought it was one of the guys in the wood playing a tape or something, rather than an owl. I kind of thought it was going to come one way or another but I wasn’t sure from which direction . . . apart from Dallas and Wayne. I never thought Dallas and Wayne were going to produce the goods.”

During filming Matthews spent time with three different groups of Bigfoot hunters (among others who didn’t make the final cut). Matthews spent hours alone whilst on stake out in the forest with Dyer and he is now in a row with him over the ownership of Matthews’ documentary footage – it seemed that that relationship was the one that had genuine tension. An audience member asked if Matthews felt safe with Rick Dyer?

“I never trusted Rick. That was what made him interesting. It was freaky at times and when you are in the tent in the woods and it’s four in the morning and there are weird noises around it is a bit freaky and Rick is . . . playing silly buggers. . . . I genuinely never felt Rick was somebody who would either harm me . . . well, hmm . . . I never thought that he’d actually, properly . . . I never thought that he’d shoot me. I don’t think he’s that sort of person.”

Another audience member pointed out the amount of weapons that were on display throughout the documentary and asked if the idea of hunting Bigfoot was just an excuse for blokes to swan about in the forest with guns.

“Almost all about that. . . . They’re doing it for different reasons. But ultimately they’re guys behaving like kids, in a good way, like kids in the woods”

However, Matthews said that he thought there was more to it:

“With Dallas and Wayne, they’re guys who had jobs who had a purpose who lost that and then found Bigfoot. That became their reason to get up in a way. They’re known within that world. With all these communities connected by the Internet somebody who was otherwise previously kind of isolated or weird now there’s a network of people they can be in touch with.”

Director Morgan Matthews introduces tonight's screening of Shooting Bigfoot. pic.twitter.com/9MV7Xf9WHs

— Frontline Club (@frontlineclub) March 17, 2014

Did you ever feel like you were exploiting them?

“I think it’s a fair question, I don’t think they’re mental as in mentally ill. They’re quite a bit bonkers in a way that they’re aware of, . . . they’re all showmen to an extent. They’re all aware of themselves part of what they’re doing is involving me in that show.

 

“I felt it went both ways, sometimes they were taking the piss out of me and sometimes it went the other way. It was genuinely a lot of fun. I laughed so much on that trip but genuinely with them. Tom [a serial Bigfoot film maker] just has you in stitches and sometimes it’s hard to hold the camera straight. When Chico [an ex-navy SEAL on the expedition with Tom] fell in the water we were all creasing up in laughter and . . . that’s with them, it’s not at them.”

Was there a point where you found yourself wanting to believe it?

“I think it started like that and I kind of wanted to uncover something . . . [but] I became interested in the story of people, where the lines between fact and fiction were very blurred and they almost invent their own reality and live in that. A case where you believe in something so much it becomes true. The parallels with religion were very clear to me.”

When asked if he felt any of the guys genuinely believed in Bigfoot Matthews said:

“Yeah, but it’s sort of when Tom says that people start believing their own bullshit, I think that’s kind of what happened.”

Shooting Bigfoot airs on BBC 4 at 9pm on Monday March 24, 2014. Find out more here.

Watch the full Q&A and the trailer for Shooting Bigfoot below:

On Monday 13 January, the Frontline Club hosted a screening of Tales from the Organ Trade followed by a Q&A session with director Ric Esther Bienstock. Bienstock introduced the film briefly, telling the audience it took three years to make, covers eight countries, and comprises five different languages.

Tales from the Organ Trade presents the different perspectives around organ donation, specifically kidney donation, and the black market organ trade, through the stories of different donors and recipients, and seeks to explore the arguments surrounding this issue.

The film presents the stories of recipients from the West – the US and Canada – who receive kidneys in different ways, and also looks at people from Eastern Europe and the Philippines, who sold their kidneys. It also focuses on the facilitators of the black market, and those who are trying to shut it down.

In presenting these different stories, Bienstock said that she realised that this world was really an “ambiguous world, and much more nuanced and complex than just pure exploitation”. The film seeks to address the debate over the ethics of buying and selling organs, and attempts to challenge any judgements towards those involved with the black market.

In answering a question from the audience on the risks of kidney donation, Bienstock replied that kidney donation is less risky than liposuction, and has been compared, in terms of medical risk, to surrogacy. However, this does not apply to kidney transplants carried out on the black market, as illustrated in the documentary when a Filipino man sells a kidney and later discovers he has renal failure – the transplant has caused harm to himself and  most likely to the recipient of his kidney as well.

In response to the idea of regulation of the market, Bienstock said that, while regulation would definitely make the system safer, it would not be a positive step, asking:

“Do we want to be a society where we regulate buying body parts from poor people? Because nobody affluent is going to sell a kidney.”

One audience member working for the NHS said that the UK has a high rate of families refusing to donate their deceased relative’s organs, and highlighted the negative role that the media has played in encouraging the public’s distrust in the organ donation system. Bienstock pointed out that there are several governments, including Spain and Wales, which have implemented a system of presumed consent, where individuals can opt out if they feel strongly against organ donation. However, as she learnt from conducting her research for the film:

“The sad truth is, though, that even if we all registered to be organ donors – and we should because we . . . need lots of organs that you can’t give while you’re alive – but even if we all did there would not be enough kidneys to go around.”

Bienstock revealed that she had originally intended to tell the story through one operation, but the narrative developed over time and during her research. She realised quickly that Kosovo was an anomaly, in that it was just the place that people travelled to for their operations. But the Philippines were included as a country where people trade in the black market in an attempt to lift themselves out of poverty.

The abject poverty of donors was the topic of another question. Had the prosecutor in the film considered the morality of the act of selling a kidney? Had the film affected his determination to prosecute the main surgeon in the film, Dr Sonmaz, or made him recognise the major role poverty continues to play in this system? The prosecutor had told Bienstock that he enjoyed the film very much, and that he does understand that poverty is a driving force of the black market. However, the black market is illegal, and as a prosecutor his role is not to ask ethical questions about poverty:

“Morality and the law are two different things.”

Tales from the Organ Trade continues to be screened in the US, and is available to rent online through Journeyman Pictures. Information about the film can be found on the film’s website. Full versions of interviews conducted as part of the research for the film, with medical ethicists, surgeons and academics are due to be uploaded onto the website by the end of January 2014.

By Antonia Roupell
Between the Lines Follow-Up Events once more succeeded in showcasing a diverse range of films at the Frontline Club on the 25th October. Each of the five documentaries opened a window onto a subject rarely documented from places like North Korea, Yemen and Iraq. Multimedia journalist, Adrian Branco and filmmakers Jason Lee and Tim Travers Hawkins were present for the Q&A with a large audience.

A bleak and urgent tone was set, starting with Travers Hawkins’ film 1000 Voices. It dealt with the reality of asylum seekers held in indefinite detention centres across the UK. The inhumanities the detained face were conveyed through authentic voice recordings juxtaposed with animation and performance art. Travers Hawkins said, “all the footage is suggestive.” He explained that the multiple mediums used were born out of their limitations, stating:

“There was talk at one stage of smuggling in camera phones and getting that kind of footage. . . . But then you have to ask yourself a question whether that kind of footage is better?. . . I think there is also an opportunity when you are denied access to film the subject to create something new and to use new forms of documentary expression.”

Branco also struggled with having to obey protocols in the pursuit of his story. In his film, The Death of Corporal Rivierè, he followed French troops to Afghanistan’s Surobi Valley and told the intimate story of one soldiers’ burial. He expressed his frustration at finding out that the images he had captured could not be made public:

“I was pissed off a lot and I was wondering how can I succeed in giving the feeling of being true to my audience without lying to the audience.”

He achieved this balance with the help of cartoonist Adrien Demot who drew the censored images, thus conveying the story without breaking any rules. Through both Travers Hawkins and Branco’s films the blurred boundaries within the aesthetics of reality were brought to light.

Death of a Prisoner by Laura Poitras also dealt with the direct reality and consequences of death in a war context. This time it was a disturbing portrait of a deceased Guantanamo Bay prisoner. His is a final journey home  in a coffin to his family in Yemen after suffering great physical and psychological trauma in captivity which lead to his death. A glimpse into an individual tragedy, in view of a far bigger picture, had the effect of silencing the audience.

Evidently, creativity became the key in many of these films to overcome technical boundaries. Performance art itself empowered by a social statement was the subject of Maryam Ebrahimi’s film, The Death Row. This portrayed an act of defiance made by a group of 15 females in Kabul dressed in traditional mourning robes in a plea for Afghan women’s right to education. As they stand anonymously side-by-side the footage focuses on their audience of bewildered locals passing by.

Perhaps the most uplifting of the journeys was captured in Lee’s Letters from Pyongyang. A touching story which sees Lee make the journey with family in Canada to reunite momentarily with their long-lost relations isolated in North Korea. Their joyous reunion proved to be a painful reminder of the lost time stolen from them. From idea to completion this project took five years. The audience wanted to know how Lee had permission to film in North Korea. He explained that gaining a visa was the hard part and that in terms of filming:

“I was there on a very personal mission. My intentions were very clear from the beginning when I was in contact with the North Korean authorities.”

In both content and access it would be an understatement to describe these films as difficult. However  Lee made an important point with regards to this in explaining that the complexity of the film process should not eclipsing the films’ subject. He spoke for the three filmmakers present when he said, “we stayed true to our stories.”

[vimeo clip_id=”77472035″ width=”400″ height=”225″]

Branco’s online documentary can be explored here: http://www.journageek.com/
Travers Hawkins’ multimedia projects continues here: http://www.invisiblepictureshow.com/