Jon Blair
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Jon Blair,
CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
, is a South African-born writer, film producer and director of documentary films, drama and comedy.


Biography

Jon Blair was born in South Africa. He was drafted into the South African army in 1966 but chose instead to flee to England. Among numerous awards he has won four of the premier awards in his field: an Oscar, an Emmy (twice), an International Documentary Association Distinguished Achievement Award and a British Academy Award. He was appointed
Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...
(CBE) in the 2015 Birthday Honours for services to film. In 1994 Blair was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey for his contribution to human rights awareness through his film-making work. In 2003 Blair served as a visiting professor at Stockton teaching a course on researching real world issues to a group of final year cross disciplinary students.


Documentaries

''
Anne Frank Remembered ''Anne Frank Remembered'' is a 1995 British documentary film produced and directed by Jon Blair about the life and posthumously published diary of the German-Jewish diarist, Anne Frank, who spent most of her life in the Netherlands. The film w ...
'', written, produced and directed by Blair, is the winner of an
Academy Award for Documentary Feature The Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film is an award for documentary films. In 1941, the first awards for feature-length documentaries were bestowed as Special Awards to '' Kukan'' and ''Target for Tonight''. They have since been best ...
(''Oscar''), as well as an
International Emmy The International Emmy Awards, or International Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based International Academy of Television Arts and Sci ...
, a CableACE, the International Documentary Association Distinguished Achievement Award, the Audience Award at the
International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam. Over a period of twelve days, it has screened more than 300 films and sold more than 250,000 tic ...
( IDFA), the Jury Award at the
Hamptons International Film Festival The Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) is an international film festival founded in 1992, by Joyce Robinson. The festival has since taken place every year in East Hampton, New York. It is usually an annual five-day event in mid-October ...
and a Gold Plaque at the
Chicago International Film Festival The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...
together with awards for editing and cinematography at the New York Film and Television Festival. It has also been featured at the Melbourne, Montreal and Toronto International Film Festivals (all non-competitive). The film was distributed theatrically in the UK, North America and Australia. Blair is the winner of a British Academy Award for Best Documentary for his 1983 film, '' Schindler'', which preceded Steven Spielberg's feature by 10 years and was used extensively by Spielberg as a research resource. ''Schindler'' was narrated by Dirk Bogarde and written, produced and directed by Blair. In 2019, he re-released ''Schindler'' in high definition with
Ben Kingsley Sir Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Pandit Bhanji; 31 December 1943) is an English actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning five decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Grammy Award, and tw ...
as the narrator. Most recently Blair won the 2022 Monte Carlo Television Festival Gold Nymph Award for Best Current Affairs Film for his feature documentary ''Navalny - The Man Putin Couldn't Kill'' of which the Guardian said "horror and absurdity jostle for space in this fascinating documentary". ''The Daily Telegraph'' called it "an extraordinary and bizarrely entertaining film" while The Sunday Telegraph said it is "a film brimming with the banality of evil." Between January 2011 and July 2013 Blair was in charge of Major Series and Documentary Specials for the broadcaster Al Jazeera English. In late 2011 he had the Discussions brief added to his portfolio. During his time at Al Jazeera he commissioned and executive produced a range of one-off documentaries and series as well as creating new talk show formats. As Executive Producer of '' Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark'', directed by May Ying Welsh for Al Jazeera, Jon won a Robert F Kennedy Journalism Award, an Amnesty International Media Award, a UK Foreign Press Association Feature Story of the Year Award, a
George Polk Award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the awar ...
for Journalism, and a
Scripps Howard Foundation The Scripps Howard Fund is a public charity that supports philanthropic causes important to the E. W. Scripps Company, an American media conglomerate which owns television stations, cable television networks, and other media outlets. The goal of ...
Jack R Howard Award, and was nominated for a British Academy Award and a
Royal Television Society Award The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...
. In 2012 Blair was asked to create formats and commission high-profile series and one-off documentaries for Al Jazeera's new American channel and in that capacity he commissioned some of the United States' best known non-fiction film makers to make a range of documentaries and series to be shown in 2014. Before he joined Al Jazeera, Blair's feature documentary ''
Dancing with the Devil Dancing with the Devil may refer to: * '' Dancing with the Devil... the Art of Starting Over'', a 2021 album by Demi Lovato ** "Dancing with the Devil" (song), a 2021 song by Demi Lovato * ''Dancing with the Devil'', a 2001 album by Seann Scott * ...
'' premiered at the Silverdocs Festival in the US in June 2009 and had its Latin American premiere at the
Festival do Rio The Festival do Rio is an international film festival in Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-mo ...
, the Rio de Janeiro Film Festival in October 2009. Peter Bradshaw of ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' described ''Dancing with the Devil'' as "horribly fascinating", it portrays the bloody battle between drug lords and police in
Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...
where more than 1000 people die each year. During 2007 and early 2008, Blair made '' Ochberg's Orphans'' for Rainmaker Films, about the 1921 expedition of one Isaac Ochberg who saved nearly 200 orphans from the wreckage of post-revolutionary Russia. The film was shortlisted for an Oscar for Short Documentary. In August 2007 Blair completed ''Murder Most Foul'' a 75-minute feature documentary for
More 4 More4 is a British free-to-air television channel, owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The channel launched on 10 October 2005. Its programming mainly focuses on lifestyle and documentaries, as well as foreign dramas. Content When ...
about crime in South Africa with the ex-South African Shakespearean actor, Sir
Antony Sher Sir Antony Sher (14 June 1949 – 2 December 2021) was a British actor, writer and theatre director of South African origin. A two-time Laurence Olivier Award winner and a four-time nominee, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982 a ...
. In 2006, Blair produced and directed a multi episode comedy series for BBC1, '' Dawn French's Girls Who Do: Comedy''. In 2005 Jon made two one-hour drama documentaries for Discovery Networks Europe in the ''Zero Hour'' series, about the Oklahoma bomb and the plot to kill
Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
. Prior to that he worked as an Executive Producer for Discovery for eight months. In 2003–04, he produced a four-hour series – of which he produced, wrote and directed 3 hours – '' Reporters at War'', a first hand history of war reporting, featuring some of the most famous American and British war reporters through the ages. The Series won an Emmy in the US for Best Historical Programming. His feature length opening programme of the series won the
Broadcasting Press Guild The Broadcasting Press Guild (BPG) is a British association of journalists dedicated to the topic of general media issues. History The Guild was established in 1974 as a breakaway of The Critics' Circle. Currently it groups over 100 staff and f ...
Award for best multi-channel programme for 2003 and was nominated for the Broadcast Award for Best Multi-Channel Programme for 2003/4, as well as receiving an Honourable Mention at Banff. The Series also received a Gold Medal at the New York Festivals. Following a programme on ''Bin Laden: the Early Years'' for
Channel Four Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in ...
after 11 September 2001, in 2002 he was series producer, as well as director and writer of two episodes of the four-part series '' The Age of Terror''. The series made by 3BM Television received wide critical acclaim including an International Documentary Association Award nomination and winning the Broadcast Award for Best Multi-Channel Programme for 2002. The series was also nominated for a Banff Documentary Award. Also in 2002, Blair produced, wrote, directed and narrated ''The Meyssan Conspiracy'', about a 9/11 conspiracy theory, for Channel Four Science and then a rapid turn-round special, also for Channel Four, on the Bali bombing. He was also a contributor to ''The Times Special Supplement'' on the first anniversary of the 11 September tragedy. As a producer/director on the British TV shows ''Tonight'', ''This Week'' and ''TV Eye'', Blair covered domestic and foreign political and economic stories including the first programme about the 1976 Soweto uprising for British television, ''There Is No Crisis!'', and coverage of wars in the Middle East, Cambodia and Angola. As a war correspondent/feature writer he has contributed to ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'', ''
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...
'', ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
'', ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...
'' and ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''. He has also been a book reviewer for the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
''. Having created one of the first independent production companies in England with Spitting Image Productions, Blair set up his own company, Jon Blair Films, in 1987. The company's first production was a feature documentary co-produced with BBC1 which Jon produced, directed and wrote, '' Do You Mean There Are Still Real Cowboys?''. It tells the story of a year in the life of the small cow town in Wyoming where the actress
Glenn Close Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress. Throughout her career spanning over four decades, Close has garnered numerous accolades, including two Screen Actors Guild Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards ...
's parents now live. The feature-length version was narrated by Robert Redford. Blair then wrote and produced a drama documentary for Channel Four, ''The Kimberley Carlile Inquiry'' based on
Louis Blom-Cooper Sir Louis Jacques Blom-Cooper (27 March 1926 – 19 September 2018) was an English author and lawyer specialising in public and administrative law. Early life Born in London, his parents were the grocer Alfred Blom-Cooper and Ellen Flesseman. ...
's inquiry into the circumstances surrounding that infamous case of child abuse. The production starred
Julie Covington Julie Covington (born 11 September 1946) is an English singer and actress, best known for recording the original version of " Don't Cry for Me Argentina", which she sang on the 1976 concept album Evita. Early life Julie Covington was born in ...
, Brian Cox,
Kenneth Cranham Kenneth Cranham (born 12 December 1944) is a Scottish film, television, radio and stage actor. Early life Cranham was born in Dunfermline, Fife, the son of Lochgelly-born Margaret McKay Cranham (née Ferguson) and Ronald Cranham, a London-bor ...
,
Daniel Day-Lewis Sir Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis (born 29 April 1957) is an English retired actor. Often described as one of the preeminent actors of his generation, he received numerous accolades throughout his career which spanned over four decades, incl ...
,
Trevor Eve Trevor John Eve (born 1 July 1951) is an English film and television actor. In 1979 he gained fame as the eponymous lead in the detective series ''Shoestring'' and is also known for his role as Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd in BBC televi ...
,
Alan Howard Alan Howard may refer to: * Alan Howard (actor) (1937–2015), English actor * Alan Howard (cricketer) (1909–1993), English cricketer * Alan Howard (engineer) (1905–1966), American engineer * Alan Howard (hedge fund manager) (born 1963), hedge f ...
,
Anna Massey Anna Raymond Massey (11 August 19373 July 2011) was an English actress. She won a BAFTA Award for the role of Edith Hope in the 1986 TV adaptation of Anita Brookner's novel ''Hotel du Lac'', a role that one of her co-stars, Julia McKenzie, h ...
,
Diana Quick Diana Marilyn Quick (born 23 November 1946) is an English actress. Early life and family background Quick was born on 23 November 1946 in London, England. She grew up in Dartford, Kent, the third of four children. Her father was Leonard Qui ...
,
Zoe Wanamaker Zoe (also ZOE, Zoë, Zoé, etc.) can refer to: *ζωή (''zōḗ''), the Ancient Greek word for "life" People * Zoe (name), including list of persons and fictional characters with the name Film and television * ''Zoe'' (film) * ZOE Broadcast ...
, and others. Other productions included an early example of a formatted documentary, ''Thighs, Lies & Beauty'', an investigation of the myths and reality surrounding the beauty business for BBC1; ''The Art of Tripping'', a 2-hour dramatised documentary for Channel Four on drug taking and the arts starring Bernard Hill; a ''Frontline'' (Channel Four) current affairs film featuring the story of South African
Jann Turner Jann Turner (born 1964) is a South African film director, novelist, television director and screenwriter. Her feature film directorial debut was the 2009 film ''White Wedding''. Life and career Turner was born to anti-Apartheid academic Rick ...
whose father was assassinated in front of her when she was 13, and as an adult returns to South Africa to look at the arguments for revenge versus reconciliation in the new South Africa; ''Steven Spielberg on "Schindler's List"'' and ''Tom Hanks & The World According to Gump'', both for the BBC; and ''Wagner vs Wagner'', for Channel Four, featuring Richard Wagner's great grandson on the composer's political and cultural legacy of
anti-semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...
and race hatred.


Theatrically released films

Both ''
Anne Frank Remembered ''Anne Frank Remembered'' is a 1995 British documentary film produced and directed by Jon Blair about the life and posthumously published diary of the German-Jewish diarist, Anne Frank, who spent most of her life in the Netherlands. The film w ...
'' and ''Dancing with the Devil'' have been released theatrically, the former by Sony Pictures Classics in the US. In 1991 Blair produced and his company made the feature film, ''
Monster in a Box ''Monster in a Box'' is a monologue originally performed live on stage by the writer Spalding Gray then subsequently made into a 1992 film starring Gray and directed by Nick Broomfield. A follow-up to Gray's earlier work, '' Swimming to Cambo ...
'', Spalding Gray's sequel to his earlier work, '' Swimming to Cambodia''. The film, directed by documentarian
Nick Broomfield Nicholas Broomfield (born 1948) is an English documentary film director. His self-reflective style has been regarded as influential to many later filmmakers. In the early 21st century, he began to use non-actors in scripted works, which he cal ...
, and distributed in the US by Fineline Features consists of a long-form monologue by Gray detailing the trials and tribulations he encountered when writing his eponymous first novel. The soundtrack music was composed by
Laurie Anderson Laurel Philips Anderson (born June 5, 1947), known as Laurie Anderson, is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and ...
. The film achieved the ultimate accolade of being parodied on ''
Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) ...
'' as an instalment of Monsterpiece Theater, with the main actor and writer aptly called Spalding Monster in a homage to Gray. With rather more pathos the film also contains a number of references to Gray's suicidal thoughts of drowning, thereby hinting at his eventual death in 2004, when he is thought to have jumped off the Staten Island Ferry in New York.


Drama/comedy

Blair was co-founder and co-creator of ''
Spitting Image ''Spitting Image'' is a British satirical television puppet show, created by Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn. First broadcast in 1984, the series was produced by 'Spitting Image Productions' for Central Independent Television ...
'', acting as producer and then executive producer until mid 1987. He was also executive producer of all Spitting Image specials for NBC and HBO in the US. In his time at Spitting Image as producer or executive producer the programme won two Emmies, a Banff comedy award, and numerous other international awards. Blair produced ''Dunrulin for BBC1, a satirical comedy based on his own idea featuring the Thatcher family in retirement starring Angela Thorne and John Wells. He also made ''The Stone Age'' by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman for BBC1 and starring Trevor Eve. Other comedy productions include ''Packing Them In'' and ''Blue Heaven'', both starring Frank Skinner and both for Channel Four. There was also the light-hearted dramatised documentary ''Sindy Hits Thirty'', with Sandi Toksvig, for Channel Four.


Theatre

Blair is the author of '' The Biko Inquest'', a play based on the inquest in South Africa into the death in prison of the black leader, Steve Biko. The play, originally written for television, and then later adapted for the Royal Shakespeare Company, pioneered the use of drama in current affairs. Blair directed the play-off Broadway in New York, starring
Fritz Weaver Fritz William Weaver (January 19, 1926 − November 26, 2016) was an American actor in television, stage, and motion pictures. He portrayed Dr. Josef Weiss in the 1978 epic television drama, ''Holocaust'' for which he was nominated for a Primetime ...
and
Philip Bosco Philip Michael Bosco (September 26, 1930 – December 3, 2018) was an American actor. He was known for his Tony Award-winning performance as Saunders in the 1989 Broadway production of '' Lend Me a Tenor'', and for his starring role in the 2007 f ...
, where it received considerable critical acclaim and ran for four months. After successful productions around the world it was produced on the London stage, and also for television, starring Albert Finney. The ''New York Times'' review said of this production that it was "extraordinarily effective" and that "the entire ensemble is so remarkably convincing that we are forced to remind ourselves that they are actors." A version of the play with an all-black cast was staged in Nigeria in 1979 directed by and starring the writer, poet, playwright and Nobel laureate
Wole Soyinka Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka (Yoruba: ''Akínwándé Olúwọlé Babátúndé Ṣóyíinká''; born 13 July 1934), known as Wole Soyinka (), is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded t ...
.Uzoatu, Uzor M. (5 October 2013). "The Essential Soyinka Timeline", ''Premium Times''.


References


External links

*
Sony classics biographySite for Dancing with the Devil filmGuardian Review of Dancing with the devilSite for Anne Frank Remembered filmSite for Jon Blair Film Company Ltd
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blair, Jon 1950 births American Experience Directors of Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners Emmy Award winners Grammy Award winners Living people South African film directors South African Commanders of the Order of the British Empire