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Producing a documentary film
Hugh Purcell

My “key elements” for a documentary

Hugh Purcell - UK

My “key elements” for a documentary

Hugh Purcell - UK

Topics

  • Project Development
  • Audience
  • Market
  • Storytelling

About the author

Hugh’s career as a British film maker covers the last twenty years and as a broadcaster in TV and Radio the last thirty five years. He worked for the BBC between 1967-1993 and finished as Managing Editor of the TV Documentary Department. After that he was a Director of the independent company CAFE that made documentary films for broadcast in the USA and Europe. Now he is a freelance film maker and Consultant to the One World Broadcasting Trust that promotes films made in and by developing countries. The film series he is proudest of is “Living Islam”, an educational series presented by a Muslim showing what it means to be a Muslim in today’s world. It took his team over two years filming in over twenty countries and not surprisingly it is being re-shown now by broadcasters although it was made 10 years ago. In 1991 he won a BAFTA (British Acadamy Award) for a series he versioned on the American Civil War. He enjoys travelling and teaching film documentary which is why he has taught at the European Film School in Denmark, the Film and TV Institute at Pune in India and the International Film School in Cuba. Between 1992-1995 he was President of MAP TV (Memory Archive Programmes), a Euro Media project set up in Strasbourg, France, to encourage and fund co-productions for films about European history. Increasingly he despairs of television and hopes that documentary film making may be put to a more worthwhile purpose. That is why he is very happy to be Head of Studies for ESoDoc. He also looks forward to indulging his three hobbies; travelling, trekking and talking over a lot of wine with today’s young film makers.

About the clip

Interviewer and Camera: Arianna Azzolini

Editing: Milena Holzknech

Edition: 2013

Location: Bardonecchia – Italy

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