Christopher Mitchell Email & Phone Number

New Broadcasting House

Responsible for commissioning and acquiring documentaries for transmission on BBC Arabic 52 weeks a year

New Broadcasting House, London

Freelance Executive Producer at BBC World Service. Responsibilities included commissioning, devising, supervising and delivering a wide range of documentaries, mostly about the Middle East. These are transmitted in a variety of languages and across a range of linear and digital platforms.

- I ran a successful London-based production company that specialized in making international documentaries and current affairs, with particular expertise in the Middle East. - I built it up to be a dynamic production house with a multi-million pound turnover and an international reputation. During this time I executive-produced more than 70 films, many of them award-winning, for leading international networks including BBC TV, Channel 4, Channel 5, the Discovery channels, and Al… Show more - I ran a successful London-based production company that specialized in making international documentaries and current affairs, with particular expertise in the Middle East. - I built it up to be a dynamic production house with a multi-million pound turnover and an international reputation. During this time I executive-produced more than 70 films, many of them award-winning, for leading international networks including BBC TV, Channel 4, Channel 5, the Discovery channels, and Al Jazeera English. - I was responsible for winning much of the company’s business and for its strategic direction. - I was responsible for the start-up of the company's now-flourishing post-production subsidiary, Azimuth Post, as well as its work in corporate communications and commercials. - I continued to work intermittently as a documentary director, having contributed to David Attenborough’s Emmy-winning Can We Save Planet Earth? (BBC1, 2006), and Slave Children (BBC2, 2007). I also directed an award-winning documentary series set in India entitled Super-30, for Al Jazeera English and Discovery Asia (2008). Show less

- In 2005 I completed three one-hour films: Property to Die For (Films of Record for BBC2, This World), on gangster capitalism in Putin’s Russia; Frontline Football – Palestine (Mentorn for BBC2), on the Palestinian experience seen through the national football team’s efforts to qualify for World Cup 2006; and G8, Can You Hear Us? (BBC in-house), on the anti-globalisation movement at the Gleneagles G8 summit. - I set up and ran the UK subsidiary of a US production company, Magnetic… Show more - In 2005 I completed three one-hour films: Property to Die For (Films of Record for BBC2, This World), on gangster capitalism in Putin’s Russia; Frontline Football – Palestine (Mentorn for BBC2), on the Palestinian experience seen through the national football team’s efforts to qualify for World Cup 2006; and G8, Can You Hear Us? (BBC in-house), on the anti-globalisation movement at the Gleneagles G8 summit. - I set up and ran the UK subsidiary of a US production company, Magnetic North Films, for which, among other productions, I made Israel’s Nuclear Whistleblower (BBC2 This World, 2004), which included a world-exclusive interview with Mordechai Vanunu. - I also made Robert Hooke – Victim of Genius (Stone City Films for BBC TV, 2003) on the life and times of the 17th century English scientist and architect Robert Hooke. Show less

- I led the documentary team at OR Media, with responsibility for developing new business and managing the company's documentary output.- Among the films I made was The Forgotten War, a series on the conflict in Western Sahara (single-film versions for BBC2 and ARTE, 1999); Thirsting for War (BBC2, 2000), on Turkey's damming of the river Euphrates; House of Memory (Future TV, 2001), a feature-length documentary about the Lebanese civil war; and Dead in the Water, a 70-minute BBC… Show more - I led the documentary team at OR Media, with responsibility for developing new business and managing the company's documentary output.- Among the films I made was The Forgotten War, a series on the conflict in Western Sahara (single-film versions for BBC2 and ARTE, 1999); Thirsting for War (BBC2, 2000), on Turkey's damming of the river Euphrates; House of Memory (Future TV, 2001), a feature-length documentary about the Lebanese civil war; and Dead in the Water, a 70-minute BBC investigation into an incident during the 1967 Six Day War. Show less

- I made films for BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4, for such series as Inside Story, Panorama, Omnibus, Dispatches and This World. They ranged across the fields of culture, history, politics and current affairs. - Examples include Plunder (BBC1, 1988) on the cultural destruction of Northern Cyprus; No Friends but the Mountains (ITV, 1991) on the Kurdish crisis at the end of the first Gulf War; The Cyprus Connection (Channel 4, 1994), on weapons smuggling into Iraq; India’s Bloody… Show more - I made films for BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4, for such series as Inside Story, Panorama, Omnibus, Dispatches and This World. They ranged across the fields of culture, history, politics and current affairs. - Examples include Plunder (BBC1, 1988) on the cultural destruction of Northern Cyprus; No Friends but the Mountains (ITV, 1991) on the Kurdish crisis at the end of the first Gulf War; The Cyprus Connection (Channel 4, 1994), on weapons smuggling into Iraq; India’s Bloody Partition (Channel 4, 1997), a polemical biography of the founder of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah; and Smoke Rings (BBC1, 1997), an investigation into the global tobacco industry. Show less

Education record

Bachelor’S Degree, Natural Science