Sean Bean is to lend his voice to a natural history documentary about Osprey. The Game of Thrones star is narrating Osprey: Sea Raptor, a one-hour doc for wildlife brand Love Nature that will also and Sky in the UK. The film, which is produced by Love Nature and CosmoVision Media Group, tells the true …
Essential Afghan Documentaries – War boosters & critics: 15 key documentaries about Afghanistan, From ‘Taxi to the Dark Side’ to ‘Hell and Back Again‘ // Variety ‘Pat Tillman‘ and other films both critical and supportive of the war // Washington Post Art Workers in France Mobilize to Help Afghan Creators // Artnet Women journalists fear brutal Taliban // Vice Director’s escape from …
Sylvia Bugg is PBS‘s highly-respected Chief Programming Executive & General Manager, General Audience Programming. Sylvia shares her strategy and program highlights in our engaging Meet the Executive session for Sunny Side of the Doc. Watch the Session: Key Themes I begin by asking Sylvia how PBS is adapting to the streaming era. She references clips …
PBS’s Nature strand is celebrating its 40th year of global leadership in Wildlife programming. A highlight episode for the anniversary year is SEASON OF THE OSPREY (October 27). I’m honored to have co-xecutive produced OSPREY for director Jacob Steinberg and the co-production partners Love Nature and The WNET Group. The project is loaded with personal meaning: 40 …
The hyped rocket jaunts by Jeffrey Bezos and Richard Branson remind me of the combination of publicly-funded Space Science and broadcasting revealed in my COSMIC SHORE Case Study from Japan. Public broadcaster NHK developed a $100K space camera for a US$6.5 million coproduction with PBS‘s NOVA strand. Their mission: capture the edge of our world, where …
Story of the Month: Investors Target Unscripted Production. There’s a frenzy of investment in unscripted production // Wall Street Journal. New SVOD’s fail to understand that success depends on streaming addiction // Lightshed Partners. Netflix Australia: Revenues surge but avoids taxes and local production // The Age + Documentary Business. Audiences want more documentaries in streaming libraries …
Update: Mandy Chang is leaving her post as legendary BBC-STORYVILLE‘s commissioning editor. Last year she recapped her STORYVILLE strategy in detail for my panel at Taiwan’s virtual CCDF-CNEX Documentary Conference. Our fellow expert panelists were: Hong Kong-based, Phoenix TV exec Haibo Huang And from Washington DC, all-knowing veteran programmer and senior consultant Dan Salerno. Read on …
Quoll Farm is a classic natural history film about a very cute and little-known Australian marsupial, the Eastern Quoll. It has a gentle conservation message, and like several recent films, notably My Octopus Teacher, there’s a story of human redemption as part of the wildlife package. I was totally charmed by the antics of the …