Famous Documentarians A short biography of some of the most renowned

documentarians of the 21st Century

Louis Theroux

Louis Theroux is a BBC television presenter best known for making reflexive documentaries that investigate fascinating worlds and lifestyles.

Louis has won awards for his TV series’ Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends and When Louis Met... as well as his one off BBC 2 specials. His informal but nosey approach shows his subject in a way as true-to-life as possible.

His documentaries appear serious due to his tone and questions; however is directness in his questioning and lack of fear to offend causes the documentary to be humorous and appear to a wider range or ages. This feature is one we could adopt to have this affect.

Louis’ style of narrative is informal which is the approach we’d like to take, however we were aiming to do more of an expository style documentary that does not include the interviewer in the clip.

David AttenboroughAttenborough is renowned for his poetic documentaries, exposing many features of the natural world. At 86 he is still active, writing and present his most well known work Life Serieswhich will premier in January 2013.

Attenborough’s career started in 1952 when he took on a full time position in the BBC. His first broadcasts were in a quiz show, however his first natural world based project was the three part series The Pattern of Animals. From there his appearances and success increased.

His voice has become famous to British audiences for wildlife documentaries. The principal series with which his narration is associated with include:

Wildlife on Earth (1977–2005) Nature’s Great Event’s (2009)BBC Wildlife Specials (1995–2008) Life (2009)The Blue Planet (2001) Frozen Planet (2011)Planet Earth (British version) (2006)

Michael MooreMichael Moore is an American documentary filmmaker, author, social critic, and activist. He appears in his expository documentary films and includes interviews with his participants.

Moore directed and produced Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), the highest-grossing documentary of all time and winner of the Palme d'Or. His films Bowling for Columbine (2002) and Sicko (2007) also placed in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries, and earned him the the Academy Award for Documentary Feature. In September 2008, he released his first free movie on the Internet, Slacker Uprising, which documented his personal quest to encourage more Americans to vote in presidential elections.

His career in television documentaries started in 1994 when he directed and hosted the BBC television series TV Nation, which exposed news that other sources avoided and was aired on BBC2 in the UK.

Michael PalinMichael Palin is a travel documentarian, producing documentaries from all over the world.

His reflexive and slightly poetic documentaries have taken him through Europe all the way to the Caribbean. Although he has won numerous awards for his film performances, predominantly Monty Python, he has also become a face for the BBC’s documentaries.

Palin had always wanted to be an explorer but his dream seemed to be getting more and more unlikely; until one day in September 1988 he went on a journey that was to change is life. It became a book and television series called Around the World in 80 Days and transformed him into an exploring documentarian. It then increased his desire to explore the world in more depth.

Palin’s next series, released 13th October 2012, is Sahara with Michael Palin.

Ross KempRoss Kemp is a BAFTA award winning actor, author and journalist. However, he is also known for his investigative documentaries and is critically acclaimed for his award winning Ross Kemp on Gangs series.

Since 2006 Kemp has presented a number of documentaries including Ross Kemp in Afghanistan, Ross Kemp: Extreme World and Ross Kemp: Back On The Frontline. His reflexive, expository documentaries have revealed many issues from around the world, including the criminal underworld and his participatory approach has brought him much popularity.

Kemp has collaborated with Sky for a number of documentaries.