Many of Doran's documentaries cover the lives of people caught up war zones around the world.[17] His 2017 film The Boy Who Started the Syrian War, which has received over 100 million views globally, centers on the story of how anti-Assad graffiti created by schoolboys had reportedly started the Syrian civil war.[8] In 2016, his film ISIS in Afghanistan won two Emmy awards in the outstanding continuing coverage of a news story in a news magazine, and the best report in a news magazine categories,[18] as well as a Peabody award[19] and three awards at the New York Film Festival.
Doran has directed and produced numerous documentaries, including:
Year
Title
Plot
2021
The Fans Who Make Football: Celtic FC
This documentary explores what it means to be a fan of Celtic football club.[24][25]
2018
Crimea: Russia's Dark Secret
The documentary reveals the occupation of Crimea by Russia, and Russia's systematic and blatant violations of human rights on the territory of the peninsula.[26]
2017
ISIL Target Russia
This film journeys deep into the impregnable mountains of northern Afghanistan, where thousands of ISIL fighters are training and plotting an attack on Russia.[27]
2017
The Boy Who Started the Syrian War
An intimate look at the war in Syria through the eyes of Mouawiyah Syasneh, the boy whose anti-Assad graffiti lit the spark that engulfed Syria.[28][8]
2016
ISIS and the Taliban: The Journey
Doran journeys to Afghanistan to join Zubair Massoud, adviser to the national security council. They travel through some of the most dangerous territory in the world, to discover just how bad the situation really is after the withdrawal of most NATO forces two years previously.[29]
2015
The Taliban Hunters
This film follows the 'Taliban Hunters,' Karachi's elite police unit who are fighting back against Taliban militants in an attempt to regain control of the dangerous city.[30]
2015
Kenya's Enemy Within
An investigation into whether the wall promised by Kenya on the border of Somalia, in response to al-Shabab attacks, is already too late.[31]
2015
ISIS in Afghanistan
A special report that reveals how ISIS is on the rise in Afghanistan, and how they are targeting and training children to join Jihad in the war-torn country.[32][8]
2015
Living Beneath the Drones
A film that investigates the devastating impact that war and living under the constant threat of drones has on the mental health of the people of Afghanistan.[33]
2014
Syria's Second Front
A film which looks at the complexities of Syria's civil war. It is no longer the regime fighting president al-Assad, but they are also facing ISIS, who are quickly gaining ground and imposing their own barbaric rule.[34]
2014
On the Front Lines with the Taliban
With unprecedented access, this film follows Taliban fighters, as they launch an attack against the Afghan National Army from the Taliban stronghold in Charkh district, just an hour outside the Afghan capital, Kabul.[35]
2014
Arming the Rebels
This film offers a rare glimpse into a covert programme by US intelligence forces who have been training and arming select groups of Syrian rebels out of a previously reported location, in Qatar.[36]
2014
The Girls of the Taliban
A film which explores the new wave of privately run madrasahs that are opening across Afghanistan. As well as meeting the girls who study there, their families and the men behind the schools, the feeling among women's rights groups is also captured - they fear their already limited freedoms are again under threat.
2014
Pakistan's Hidden Shame
A film directed by Mohammed Naqvi focusing on a culture in Peshawar of sexual abuse of street children.[37] It was screened at Sheffield Doc/Fest in June 2014.
2012
The Battle for Syria
Doran and Guardian correspondent Ghaith Abdul-Ahad travel to the frontline where rebel fighters face the forces of Bashar al-Assad's regime, witnessing the deadliest period of the fighting so far.
2012
Opium Brides
Najibullah Quraishi journeys deep into the Afghan countryside to reveal how ISAF poppy eradication programmes are forcing Afghan peasant farmers into debt with drug mafias. When they cannot pay, the traffickers take their daughters.[38]
2012
In the Hands of Al Qaeda
Ghaith Abdul Ahad investigates how Al Qaeda was able to capture Yemeni towns and cities from right under the noses of the United States and the Sana'a administration.[39]
2011
Pakistan's Open Secret
An observational documentary following a flamboyant 'family' of transgender people as they hustle and scrape together a living on the streets of Karachi.[40]
2011
The Promoters
An investigation into extra judicial killings in Kenya, where human rights workers accuse police of killing more than 8,500 young men in the last ten years alone.[41]
2011
Sudan: The Break Up
Made for Al-Jazeera, this three part series charts the troubled history of Sudan from pre-colonial times to the present day.[42][43]
This controversial and widely acclaimed[22][44][45][46][47] film shows how former Northern Alliancewarlords and powerful businessmen are preying on impoverished young boys in Afghanistan. The ancient tradition of Bachi Bazi (translation: boy-play) was banned under the Taliban, but has resurfaced since they were routed by ISAF in late 2001. Boys as young as 11 are bought and sold like slaves, dressed up like women and made to dance before audiences of men. The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan exposes how these boys are systematically sexually abused, and frequently murdered by jealous rival owners. Despite these practices being illegal under Afghan law, the film shows that the men committing the abuse do so with impunity. This film premiered at the Royal Society of Arts on 29 March 2010.[48] It was aired on PBS Frontline in the United States, and True Stories in the UK on 20 April 2010.
2010
Afghanistan: Behind Enemy Lines
Broadcast in February, 2010, as an episode of Dispatches on the British television network, Channel 4, this film shows how fighters from the proscribed extremist Islamic group, Hezb-e-Islami, are opening a new battlefront in Northern Afghanistan.[49][50] Filmed by the Rory Peck Award winning British-Afghan journalist, Najibullah Quraishi, who spent 2 weeks with these fighters, Afghanistan: Behind Enemy Lines includes footage of the fighters constructing, planting and detonating roadside bombs (or IEDs).[51] Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor of the Guardian newspaper, described the film as "An extraordinary and intimate documentary depicting the lives of fighters within the Taliban's insurgency in Afghanistan".[52] This film was broadcast on PBS Frontline as Behind Taliban Lines in February 2010.[53] This film was nominated for a British Film and Television Academy Award in the Best Current Affairs programme category. In June 2010 it won the One World Media Award for best TV documentary.
2009
Africa Rising
This film documents the failure of Western development policy in Africa, and shows how a community of impoverished Ethiopian farmers are working themselves out of poverty through collectivization and micro-finance initiatives. It won the 2010 One World Media MDGs Award, being described by judges as "superbly shot and uplifting... a compelling piece of work that drew the viewer into the heart of a community as it struggled to shake off a dependency culture".[54]
2007
Whiskey in the Jar
Documenting life on the remote Irish island of Tory, the only place in Ireland with an appointed sovereign.[55][56]
Shown on BBC2, this programme exposed how anti-HIV drugs were tested on "vulnerable and poor children at a New York care home ... who had no choice in whether or not to take part in trials and no proper advocates to speak on their behalf".[57] Describing HIV medicines given to the children as "futile" and "dangerous", the programme also demonstrated how children had been taken from their families to enable the "experimental" drug treatment to continue.[57] Despite critics' charges that the programme was "lurid, untrue" and contained "dangerous lies" a BBC investigation did not uphold these complaints.
Interviewees presented as eyewitnesses state that several thousand Taliban prisoners of war were transported to Sheberghan prison in sealed containers and that hundreds or thousands of prisoners died.[63][64] Afghans interviewed in the film claim that U.S. personnel were present and involved in mass killings.[65][64][66]
A preliminary version of the documentary was shown to the European Parliament and the German Parliament in June 2002, under the title Massacre at Mazar, prompting calls for investigations from human rights bodies.[65][63][64][66]The Pentagon denied allegations of U.S. involvement and released a statement, saying "U.S. Central Command looked into it a few months ago, when allegations first surfaced when there were graves discovered in the area of Sherberghan prison. They looked into it and did not substantiate any knowledge, presence or participation of US service members."[63] An August 2002 report in Newsweek, based on a UN memo, described a mass grave site in the Dasht-i-Leili desert, but said there was no evidence that U.S. personnel had been involved.[67][68]
The story resurfaced in July 2009, when U.S. President Barack Obama asked his national security team to look into allegations that the Bush administration had resisted calls to have the matter investigated.[69][70][71]
Life in post-Soviet era Moscow: the film documents a month in the life of one of Russia's new breed of oligarch bankers, and shadows an elite police unit tasked with tackling organised crime.[citation needed]
The story of the young women who were forced by the KGB to seduce foreign military personnel, businessmen and diplomats in order to elicit secrets from them. Includes first-hand testimony from former KGB agents, some of the women involved, as well as American intelligence analysts.[75][76]
1994
The Red Bomb
A three-part series on the Soviet Union's first nuclear bomb, built in 1949, years before the West thought the Soviet Union had the capability to build such a bomb. Features interviews with former Soviet spies and scientists.[77][78][79]
The Taliban, which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a militant organization in Afghanistan with an ideology comprising elements of Pashtun nationalism and the Deobandi current of Islamic fundamentalism. It ruled approximately three-quarters of the country from 1996 to 2001, before being overthrown following the American invasion. It recaptured Kabul on 15 August 2021 following the departure of most coalition forces, after nearly 20 years of insurgency, and currently controls all of the country. However, its government is not recognized by any country. The Taliban government has been internationally condemned for restricting human rights in Afghanistan, including the right of women and girls to work and to have an education.
The Dasht-i-Leili massacre occurred in December 2001 during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan when 250 to 2,000 Taliban prisoners were shot and/or suffocated to death in metal shipping containers while being transferred by Junbish-i Milli soldiers under the supervision of forces loyal to General Rashid Dostum from Kunduz to Sheberghan prison in Afghanistan. The site of the graves is believed to be in the Dasht-e Leili desert just west of Sheberghan, in the Jowzjan Province.
Frontline is an investigative documentary program distributed by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. Episodes are produced at WGBH in Boston, Massachusetts. The series has covered a variety of domestic and international issues, including terrorism, elections, environmental disasters, and other sociopolitical issues. Since its debut in 1983, Frontline has aired in the U.S. for 39 seasons, and has won critical acclaim and awards in broadcast journalism. In 2024, Frontline won its first Oscar at the 96th Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature, "20 Days in Mariupol," made by a team of AP Ukrainian journalists. Frontline has produced over 750 documentaries from both in-house and independent filmmakers, 200 of which are available online.
Bacha bāzī is a practice in which men buy and keep adolescent boys for entertainment and sex. It is a custom in Afghanistan and in historical Turkestan and often involves sexual slavery and child prostitution by older men of young adolescent males.
Nic Robertson is the international diplomatic editor of CNN.
Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death is a 2002 documentary by Irish filmmaker Jamie Doran and Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi. It documents alleged war crimes committed by the Junbish-i Milli faction of the Afghan Northern Alliance under General Abdul Rashid Dostum against Taliban fighters. The Taliban fighters, who had surrendered to Dostum's troops after the November 2001 siege of Kunduz, were transported to Sheberghan prison in sealed containers. Human rights groups estimate that hundreds or thousands of them died during and after transit. Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death presents testimony from interviewees stating that American military personnel were present at and complicit in some of the mass killings, known as the Dasht-i-Leili massacre.
Timothy Grucza is a cameraman and documentary film maker. He is best known for his work in conflict zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ben Anderson is a British journalist, war correspondent, television reporter, and writer. He is particularly known for his coverage of the 2001–2021 War in Afghanistan, including the films This Is What Winning Looks Like, The Battle for Marjah, and Mission Accomplished? The Secret of Helmand. He has reported on numerous other controversial locations, including North Korea, Iran, and Guantanamo Bay. He has received awards for his work, including an Emmy in 2016 and the Foreign Press Award.
Guantanamo's Child is a 2015 Canadian documentary film. Directed by Patrick Reed and Michelle Shephard based on Shephard's 2009 book Guantanamo's Child: The Untold Story of Omar Khadr, the film profiles Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen whose conviction on disputed war crimes charges and incarceration at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp has been a prominent political issue in Canada.
The siege of Kunduz occurred during the 2001 United States invasion of Afghanistan. After the fall of Mazar-i-Sharif on 9 November, the focus of the Northern Alliance advance shifted towards the city of Kunduz, which was the last remaining Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan.
Martin Smith is a producer, writer, director and correspondent. Smith has produced dozens of nationally broadcast documentaries for CBS News, ABC News and PBS Frontline. His films range in topic from war in the Middle East to the 2008 financial crisis. He is a member of the Overseas Press Club and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Najibullah Quraishi is an Afghan journalist and filmmaker.
Nick Paton Walsh is a British journalist who is CNN's International Security Editor. He has been CNN's Kabul Correspondent, an Asia and foreign affairs correspondent for the UK's Channel 4 News, and Moscow correspondent for The Guardian newspaper.
The Hazaras have long been the subjects of persecution in Afghanistan. The Hazaras are mostly from Afghanistan, primarily from the central regions of Afghanistan, known as Hazarajat. Significant communities of Hazara people also live in Quetta, Pakistan, and in Mashad, Iran, as part of the Hazara and Afghan diasporas.
The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan is a 2010 documentary film produced by Clover Films and directed by Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi about the practice of bacha bazi in Afghanistan. The 52-minute documentary premiered in the UK at the Royal Society of Arts on March 29, 2010, and aired on PBS Frontline in the United States on April 20.
This Is What Winning Looks Like is a 2013 documentary by Ben Anderson. It covers the troubled efforts by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) during the 2001–2021 War in Afghanistan to train the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and assist in rebuilding key government institutions. The title of the film is a 2013 quote from US General John R. Allen.
The Islamic State – Khorasan Province is a regional branch of the Salafi jihadist group Islamic State active in South-Central Asia, primarily Afghanistan. ISIS–K seeks to destabilize, overthrow, and supplant existing governments in the historic Khorasan region with the goal of creating a Caliphate in South and Central Asia, governed by a strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law, which they plan to expand beyond the region.
Brent Edward Huffman is an American director, writer, and cinematographer of documentaries and television programs, including Saving Mes Aynak (2015). His work has been featured on Netflix, Discovery Channel, The National Geographic Channel, VICE, NBC, CNN, PBS, Time, The New York Times, Al Jazeera America and Al Jazeera English and premiered at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), and many other U.S. and international film festivals. He is also a professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University where he teaches documentary production and theory.
Marcel Mettelsiefen is a documentary filmmaker, cinematographer, and producer.
Jane Ferguson is a journalist from Northern Ireland.
↑ Anderson Cooper (12 July 2009). "Obama orders review of alleged slayings of Taliban in Bush era". CNN. Retrieved 14 July 2009. President Obama has ordered national security officials to look into allegations that the Bush administration resisted efforts to investigate a CIA-backed Afghan warlord over the killings of hundreds of Taliban prisoners in 2001.
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