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James Leslie John Woodhead,
OBE (born 1937) is a
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
documentary filmmaker
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...
.
For his National Service commencing in 1956, he served in
Fife at the
Joint Services School for Linguists
The Joint Services School for Linguists (JSSL) was founded in 1951 by the British armed services to provide language training, principally in Russian, and largely to selected conscripts undergoing National Service. The school closed with the en ...
where he was taught Russian. He was posted to West Berlin to monitor the communications of Soviet pilots flying in and out of East Germany. "The experience I've come to realise since that it shaped my continuing obsession with what was going on in
eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...
and particularly the
Iron Curtain at that time."
As a young filmmaker, he was assigned to film a new
rock 'n' roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm an ...
band called
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...
, playing at the
Cavern Club
The Cavern Club is a nightclub on Mathew Street, Liverpool, England.
The Cavern Club opened in 1957 as a jazz club, later becoming a centre of the rock and roll scene in Liverpool in the late 50s and early 1960s. The club became closely assoc ...
in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
. Woodhead first made his name as a reporter for
Granada Television's flagship
current affairs series ''
World in Action
''World in Action'' was a British investigative current affairs programme made by Granada Television for ITV from 7 January 1963 until 7 December 1998. Its campaigning journalism frequently had a major impact on events of the day. Its product ...
''. He remained with Granada for 28 years. Woodhead was among the first exponents of
docudrama, a format which allowed him to explore daily life of those "
behind the wall" during the Cold War, when journalists had little direct access. Among these were his films ''Invasion'', about Soviet invasion and the
Prague Spring of 1968, and ''Strike'' which deals with the rise of
Solidarność
Solidarity ( pl, „Solidarność”, ), full name Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity" (, abbreviated ''NSZZ „Solidarność”'' ), is a Polish trade union founded in August 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland. Subseq ...
in Poland. In 1999 his documentary film ''
A Cry From The Grave
''A Cry from the Grave'' or ''Srebrenica: A Cry from the Grave'' is a 1999 British documentary film about the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. The film was directed and produced by Leslie Woodhead.
Using testimony of survivors and relatives the document ...
'', which documents, hour by hour, the atrocities of the
Srebrenica massacre
The Srebrenica massacre ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Masakr u Srebrenici, Масакр у Сребреници), also known as the Srebrenica genocide ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Genocid u Srebrenici, Геноцид у Сребрен ...
, won awards at four film festivals.
Woodhead went freelance in 1989.
Since then, he has made a number of films for
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's ''
Storyville'' and ''
Arena
An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators ...
'' series – among them ''My Life as a Spy'', ''Star Wars Dreams'' (a history of the American missile defence program). He has also worked with the
Sundance channel Sundance Channel can refer to:
* Sundance TV, formerly known as Sundance Channel (United States).
* Sundance Channel (Canada)
* Sundance Channel (Netherlands)
* Sundance Channel (Europe) Sundance Channel can refer to:
* Sundance TV, formerly kno ...
, making ''
Godless in America'', a documentary about the life of
Madalyn Murray O'Hair who founded
American Atheists and successfully campaigned for the
separation of church and state
The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular sta ...
. He was appointed an OBE for services to television in 1994.
In 2006, he was nominated for an
Emmy for his
HBO documentary ''
Children of Beslan'' about the
Beslan school hostage crisis
The Beslan school siege (also referred to as the Beslan school hostage crisis or the Beslan massacre) was a terrorist attack that started on 1 September 2004, lasted three days, involved the imprisonment of more than 1,100 people as hostages ( ...
.
Recent filmography
*2019 ''Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things'' (Director)
*2013 ''The Day Kennedy Died'' (Writer/Director)
*2012 ''The Hunt for Bin Laden'' (Writer/Director)
*2011 ''9/11: The Day that Changed the World'' (Director/Producer)
*2009 ''How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin'' (Director)
*2006 ''Saving Jazz'' (Director)
*2005 ''Children of Beslan'' (Director/Producer)
*2004 ''The Russian Newspaper Murders'' (Executive Producer)
*2003 ''Star Wars Dreams'' (Director/Producer)
*2002 ''Media by Milosevic'' (Director)
*2001
''NOVA'''': Russia's Nuclear Warriors'' (Director/Producer/Screenwriter)
*2000 ''Tony Bennett's New York'' (Director/Producer)
*2000 ''NOVA: Holocaust on Trial'' (Director/Screenwriter)
*1998
''Endurance'' (Director)
*1991 ''The Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story'' (Director)
Awards and nominations
*1974:
BAFTA nomination for Factual Programme for ''The Year Of The Torturer''
*1986: BAFTA Desmond Davis Award
*1994:
OBE for services to television
*1999:
Biarritz International Festival Special Jury Award for ''A Cry from the Grave''
*2000: Silver
FIPA award for ''A Cry from the Grave''
*2006:
Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming for ''Children of Beslan'',
BAFTA nomination for Flaherty Documentary Award for ''Children of Beslan''
*2012: Lifetime Achievement Award at the Aldeburgh Documentary Festival,
BAFTA nomination for Single Documentary for ''9/11: The Day That Changed The World''
*2014: BAFTA nomination for Single Documentary for ''The Day Kennedy Died''
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woodhead, Leslie
English documentary filmmakers
Living people
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
1937 births