Martin Boudot is a French investigative journalist,

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

filmmaker and producer based in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, France. He is the host and producer of ''Green Warriors'', an award-winning series of scientific investigations on environmental issues, broadcast on

France 5 France 5 () is a French free-to-air public television channel, part of the France Télévisions group. Principally featuring nonfiction and educational programming, the channel's motto is ''la chaîne de la connaissance et du savoir'' (the knowl ...

Al-Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pr ...

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

etc. He is the producer and showrunner of Planet Killers, a documentary series about the most wanted environmental criminals, aimed by Interpol red notices. He is also the director of "The Boss of Bosses" on

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

, China's dissident Artist on

Arte Arte (, , ; ' ('), sometimes stylised in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European Union, European public service Television channel, channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based Europea ...

, Send in the Clowns on Canal +, The Cost of Arms on the European Broadcast Alliance partners (

RTBF The ("Belgian Radio-television of the French Community"), shortened to RTBF (branded as rtbf.be), is a public broadcasting, public service broadcaster for the French Community of Belgium, French-speaking Community of Belgium. Its counterpart i ...

ZDF ZDF (), short for (; ), is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Launched on 1 April 1963, it is run as an independent nonprofit institution, and was founded by all federal states of Germany ( ...

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

RTS RTS may refer to: Medicine * Rape trauma syndrome, the psychological trauma experienced by a rape victim * Revised Trauma Score, a system to evaluate injuries secondary to violent trauma * Rubinstein–Taybi syndrome, a condition characterized by ...

, SVT, VRT,

RTVE The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española (''Spanish Radio and Television'', RTVE), is the Spanish national public Broadcasting, television and radio broadcaster. It is a state-owned enterprise f ...

). He has won the 2024 Lorenzo Natali Best European Investigative Journalism, the 2022 Louise Weiss European Journalism Award of the Year, the 2021 "Green Impact of the Year" of the World Congress of Science, the 2019 "Rory Peck Award" in the Impact Category, the 2017 Best European Current Affairs Program at the

Prix Europa PRIX EUROPA – The European Broadcasting Festival – is Europe's largest annual tri-medial festival and competition. The event takes place in the third week of October in Berlin, Germany. PRIX EUROPA awards the best European Televisi ...

; the 2015 DIG Award, the European investigative documentary of the year. He is part of the 2018 Top 5 nominations for the Prix Europa of the European Journalist of the Year. He is among the 2015, 2017, 2022, 2023 and 2024 finalists of the

Albert Londres Prize The Albert Londres Prize is the highest French journalism award, named in honor of journalist Albert Londres. Created in 1932, it was first awarded in 1933 and is considered the French equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize. Three laureates are awarded ...

, the highest French journalistic distinction. He is the author of Toxic Bayer, an investigative book about the pharmaceutical company

Bayer Bayer AG (English: , commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies and biomedical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer' ...

, as well as Toxic, an investigation about harmful chemicals impacting the health of children; and a comic book "Les Enfants du Plomb", which won the 2024 "Eco-Fauve" Award of the International Comic Book Festival of Angoulême.

Biography

Martin Boudot, born in 1985, graduated at the École publique de journalisme de Tours and specialized in broadcast media at

Northern Colorado University The University of Northern Colorado (UNCO or UNC) is a public university in Greeley, Colorado, United States. It was founded in 1889 as the State Normal School of Colorado and has a long history in teacher education. The institution has offi ...

Filmography

• ''The Cost of Arms'', co-directed with Hugo Van Offel, 70 minutes, 2024, broadcast on

, SVT, VRT,

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...

, Radio Canada. A geopolitical and investigative documentary about the delivery weapons to Ukraine, from the production in Europe to their reception in Ukraine. In the shadows, unscrupulous intermediaries are taking advantage of this historic situation. The specter of arms trafficking in Ukraine has also become the cornerstone of Russian propaganda, seeking to frighten the countries that support the government of

Volodymyr Zelensky Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy (born 25 January 1978) is a Ukrainian politician and former entertainer who has served as the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019. He took office five years after the start of the Russo-Ukraini ...

. • ''Planet Killers'', 4X52 minutes, co-directed with Hugo Van Offel, 2023, broadcast on France 5 and on the European Broadcast Alliance partners. The Planet Killers documentary series tells the pursuit of the most wanted environmental criminals, aimed by

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL (abbreviated as ICPO–INTERPOL), commonly known as Interpol ( , ; stylized in allcaps), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime cont ...

red notices, their hunt by the authorities, investigating their international network and describing the major consequences of their crimes on the planet. Planet Killers is an unprecedented and exclusive dive into the Interpol Environmental Crimes Unit. •''Green Warriors: The Toxic Legacy of Warfare'', co-directed with Mathilde Cusin, 52 minutes, 2024, broadcast on France 5. For a year and a half, with the help of French and German scientists, the Green Warriors team investigated the consequences of these buried weapons. In the Grand-Est and Hauts-de-France regions, Martin Boudot and his team took twenty samples of tap water from areas surrounding old storage and destruction sites, or military sites still in operation. • ''Green Warriors: Flame Retardants'', 52 minutes, 2024, co-directed with Mathilde Cusin, broadcast on France 5. With the help of American and European scientists, The Green Warriors teams spent a year investigating the dangers posed by

flame retardants Flame retardants are a diverse group of chemicals that are added to manufactured materials, such as plastics and textiles, and surface finishes and coatings. Flame retardants are activated by the presence of an combustion, ignition source and pr ...

, toxic chemicals used in furnitures. They took dozens of samples across France to measure firefighters’ contamination with flame retardants. But this investigation goes beyond the case of firefighters alone: they discovered how these toxic flame retardants are leaching into the toys, environment and drinking water. • ''Green Warriors: Asbestos, Our Sick Schools'', 52 minutes, 2024, co-directed with Mathilde Cusin, broadcast on

. For a year, the Green Warriors team investigated the number of schools in France still containing

asbestos Asbestos ( ) is a group of naturally occurring, Toxicity, toxic, carcinogenic and fibrous silicate minerals. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous Crystal habit, crystals, each fibre (particulate with length su ...

, contacting 50,000 schools and 35,000 mayors’ offices. Dozens of samples were then taken in some of these establishments to measure asbestos contamination, with the help of scientists. After the broadcast, the French government announced a new study to quantify the precise number of school affectred by asbestos. The results had an unprecedented impact, resonating as far away as Kazakhstan, where unprecedented analyses were carried out by Martin Boudot and his team. • ''Green Warriors: Paris Metro, Air Alert'', 52 minutes, 2023, co-directed with Mathilde Cusin, broadcast on France 5. The Green Warriors team spent eight months measuring the levels of heavy metals and particles in the air of the Parisian underground network and the outskirts in 332 metro and RER stations. Their investigation had an unprecedented impact: the

RATP The RATP Group () is a French state-owned enterprise (EPIC) that operates public transport systems primarily in Paris, France. Headquartered in Paris, it originally operated under the name (). Its logo represents the Seine's meandering path th ...

announced that it was implementing an air quality assessment system for its network and a modernized ventilation system to allow for better air renewal. The RATP has also signed a new epidemiological study with Santé Publique France to investigate the health of its employees. • ''Green Warriors: Forever Chemicals'', 52 minutes, 2022, broadcast on France 5. This scientific investigation along with Dutch and French scientists helped change the law and regulations in France about the

PFAS Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (also PFAS, PFASs, and informally referred to as "forever chemicals") are a group of synthetic organofluorine chemical compounds that have multiple fluorine atoms attached to an alkyl chain; there are 7 millio ...

pollution in the country. • ''Green Warriors: Children of Lead'', 52 minutes, 2022, broadcast on France 5. With the help of scientists, Martin Boudot and his team investigated the lead pollution in Cerro de Pasco, Peru and in

Évin-Malmaison Évin-Malmaison () is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Geography An ex-coalmining village, now centred on farming and light industry, situated some east of Lens, at the junction of the D161 an ...

, France. Their findings in children's hair, the soil and the vegetables made the French government to initiate a saturnism screening of 7500 kids around the former lead smelter factory of MetalEurope. The documentary received the Best Environmental Film at the Barcelona Human Right Film Festival. •''Green Warriors: Coal in the Lungs,'' 52 minutes, 2021, broadcast on

. A scientific investigation about the coal pollution in the air. Every year, 500,000 Europeans die prematurely due to air pollution. In Poland, nearly 75% of electricity is produced from coal. Rybnik, Poland, is one of the most polluted cities in Europe. The Green Warriors team cooperates with Tim Nawrot from the Hassel University to reveal that children here have 425% more black carbon in their bodies than children in Strasbourg. It made headlines across Europe and even attracted the attention of the Polish government. This documentary has received the "Green Impact of The Year" at the World Congress of Science, International Series Award at the Cine-Eco Film Festival In Portugal and the "One Hour Film Mention" of the "Festival International du Film d'Environnement" • ''World's Most Wanted : Mogilevich, The Russian Mafia Boss'', 50 minutes, 2020,

. An investigation about the hunt for

Semion Mogilevich Semion Yudkovich Mogilevich (, ; , ; born June 30, 1946) is a Ukrainian-born Russian organized crime boss. He is described by agencies in the European Union and United States as the " boss of all bosses" of most Russian Mafia syndicates in th ...

, a Ukrainian-born Russian organised crime boss. He is described by agencies across the globe as the “boss of bosses” of most

Russian Mafia The Russian mafia ( or ), also known as Bratva ( ; ) less as Obshchak (Общак) or Brigades (Бригады) , is a collective of various organized crime related elements originating or/and operating in Russia. In December 2009, Timur ...

syndicates in the world, and the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

has called him “the most dangerous mobster in the world”. • ''Green Warriors: Paraguay, Poisoned Fields'', 52 minutes, 2019, broadcast on

, HRT, TVN, VRT etc. A scientific investigation about the impacts of the soy industry in Paraguay. The Green Warriors team partnered with Dr. Stela Benitez] to investigate about the potential DNA damage (naturally occurring), DNA damages of children living next to the soy fields, exposed to pesticides sprayings. Their findings made the headlines of the Paraguayan media and was discussed by the Senate. In May 2021, the lobby of the meat industry in Paraguay tried to stop the broadcast of this documentary. For this documentary, Martin Boudot and his cameraman Mathias Denizo won the "Rory Peck Awards" in the impact category; the "Special Recommandation of the Prix Europa", The "Green Horizon Award" at the Braunschweig International Film Festival, the "Green Image" at the Green Image Film Festival of Japan, the "Trophée d'Or" at the Scientific Film Festival in La Réunion. • ''Green Warriors : South Africa, Toxic Townships'', 52 minutes, 2018, broadcast on

, TVN,

SIC The Latin adverb ''sic'' (; ''thus'', ''so'', and ''in this manner'') inserted after a quotation indicates that the quoted matter has been transcribed or translated as found in the source text, including erroneous, archaic, or unusual spelling ...

etc. A scientific investigation about the gold mining waste in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

, South Africa. Confronted to the soil, water, animal hair and human hair samples made by the Green Warriors team, the National Institute For Occupational Health of South Africa called the results ''"unbelievable"'' and promised to intervene. The documentary was nominated at the 2019 Figra Festival. • ''Green Warriors : Indonesia, The World's Most Polluted River,'' 52 minutes, 2017'','' broadcast on

Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave"), commonly shortened to DW (), is a German state-funded television network, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the Federal Government of Germany. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite tele ...

, HRT, RTV, RTP. A scientific investigation about the pollution of the

Citarum The Citarum River (more correctly called the Tarum River, as the prefix "Ci" simply means "river") () is the longest and largest river in West Java, Indonesia. It is the third longest river in Java, after Bengawan Solo and Brantas. It plays an i ...

river by the textile industry. Confronted to the water, rice and hair samples made by the Green Warriors team, the Indonesian authorities declared that they were to change the controls of the textile waste industry. The documentary has won the Green Image Award at the Green Film Festival in Japan, the "Prix du Jury" at the Green Film Festival in Switzerland, The AgriSciences Life Science Film Festival award in Czech Republic. It has been nominated to Naturvision in Germany, International Nature Film Festival in Hungary, Mataslu Nature Film Festival in Estonia, Ekotopfilm in Slovakia, Green Montenegro International Film Festival, Montenegro. • ''Church : Code of Silence'', 120 minutes, 2017. A documentary for '' Cash Investigation'' about covered-up of

pedophilia Pedophilia ( alternatively spelled paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of pube ...

abusers within the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, with 2,2 million viewers. The day after the broadcasting, the French Catholic Church expressed its "profound shame". The investigation also showed the role of

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

in the Julio Grassi case, an Argentinian priest who was sentenced to 15 years prison for sexual abuses on minors. For the first time, Pope Francis was directly asked to answer on the alleged accusations regarding its role in the defense of Julio Grassi. The documentary won the 2017 best European Current Affair Program at the

. Thanks to this documentary, Martin Boudot was among the 2017 finalists of the

. • ''Toxic Chemicals, Kids in Danger'', 120 minutes, 2016. An investigation on the pesticides effects on children's health broadcast on France 2 in the investigative magazine '' Cash Investigation''. 3,1 millions people watched it. The documentary was selected and screened at the One Earth Festival, the We Love Green festival and received an award at the Deauville Green Awards. • ''The Real Price of your Mobile Phone'', 120 minutes, 2014. Broadcast on French public national TV France 2, in the investigative magazine '' Cash Investigation'', on November 4 with 3.6 million viewers. The documentary was the European investigative documentary of the year at the 2015 ''DIG Award''. Thanks to this documentary, Martin Boudot was among the 2015 finalists of the

. The documentary also won "Le Grand Prix

Gilles Jacquier Gilles Jacquier (25 October 1968 – 11 January 2012) was a French photojournalist and reporter for France Télévisions. Jacquier worked as a special correspondent for '' Envoyé spécial'', one of France's best known documentary programs w ...

". • ''Send In the Clowns'', a 90 minutes documentary about the power of humor, broadcast on

Canal+ Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...

. • ''China: the New Dissidents'', a 52 minutes documentary about chinese artists censored by the authorities. • ''Football business'', a 90 minutes documentary about the football industry • ''Green is the new black'', co-directed with Jean-Pierre Canet, a 70 minutes documentary about

greenwashing Greenwashing (a compound word modeled on "whitewash"), also called green sheen, is a form of advertising or marketing spin that deceptively uses green PR and green marketing to persuade the public that an organization's products, goals, or ...

. • ''

The Yes Men Are Revolting ''The Yes Men Are Revolting'' is a 2014 documentary film directed by Laura Nix and The Yes Men, a culture jamming duo who use the aliases Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno. Adam McKay executive produced. The film follows their exploits as they pran ...

'', Martin Boudot was a cameraman on this movie.

Books

• Les Enfants du Plomb, éditions Michel Lafon, 2024. A comic book telling the story of the "largest polluted zone in France". • Toxic Bayer, éditions Plon, 2020. An investigation about the German pharmaceuticals company

. • Toxic, nos enfants en danger, with Antoine Dreyfus, éditions La Découverte, 2016. An investigation about the harmful chemicals impacting the health of children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boudot, Martin Living people French investigative journalists French documentary filmmakers Year of birth missing (living people)