Mark Atkin

Last updated
Mark Atkin
Mark Atkin.jpg
Atkin in 2014
Occupation
  • Director, Crossover
Known for The Big Melt
From the Sea to the Land Beyond

Mark Atkin is a British filmmaker. As of 2015, he is a director at Crossover Labs, where he has directed and produced various films including The Big Melt and From the Sea to the Land Beyond. [1] [2] [3] As of 2015, he has worked with Sheffield Doc/Fest since 2008, producing documentaries such as Digging for Grandad's Gold and From the Sea to the Land Beyond, which was the subject of a TEDx talk he presented.

Contents

Career

From 1998 to 2008, Atkin was a commissioning editor for TV and online at Australia's Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), where his work included Taxi to the Dark Side and Waltz with Bashir. [4] At SBS, he was also responsible for securing broadcast rights to early seasons of South Park . [5] In 2006, he attended the MeetMarket at Sheffield Doc/Fest as a buyer. [6] In November 2008, he left SBS and began work at MeetMarket as producer and executive producer for three different documentaries. [4] One of these was Digging for Grandad's Gold, in which Atkin journeys to Poland in search of valuables that his Jewish grandfather buried on the family property in 1939 before fleeing from the German invasion. [7] While in Sheffield, Atkin also collaborated with Doc/Fest's director Heather Croall and Frank Boyd of Unexpected Media to create the film production company Crossover. [4]

As of 2013, Atkins is a marketplace consultant for the Australian International Documentary Conference, organising the international co-production market. As of 2015, he is the head of the Documentary Campus Masterschool and presents courses there. He ran workshops at Sheffield Doc/Fest in 2012 and 2013. [8] [9] After co-producing From the Sea to the Land Beyond , Atkin spoke about the project at in a TED talk at TEDxSheffield in 2012. [10]

In 2013 Atkin co-developed Animal Planet's Walking the Nile for Channel 4 in his role as multiplatform commissioning editor. [11] In 2015 Atkin was the acting director of the Sheffield Doc/Fest, and in 2015 and 2016 he curated the virtual reality section of the festival. [12] [13] [14]

References

  1. "BBC4 reveals Storyville slate". Broadcast Now, 29 July 2015 | By Hannah Gannagé-Stewart
  2. "Film Review: 'The Show of Shows'". Variety, Sept. 21, 2015 Jay Weissberg
  3. "Danish Dox: Copenhagen Fest Makes its Mark in Nonfiction November". Documentary Magazine, By Cynthia Close
  4. 1 2 3 Carol Nahra, Letter From London: Mark Atkin Crosses Over, realscreen.com, 15 December 2008, retrieved 21 January 2014
  5. ""We just got it": The story behind South Park and SBS ", SBS Australia, Maddie Palmer. 9 February 2017
  6. Brian Brooks, "Paul Weller: Into Tomorrow" Opens 13th Sheffield Docfest, indiewire.com, October 2006, retrieved 20 January 2014
  7. "Grandma's House; True Stories: Digging for Grandad's Gold; Who Knows Best: Getting a Job ", The Guardian, Euan Ferguson. 15 August 2010
  8. Laura Davies, ‘What’s Up, Doc’, ‘’Exposed magazine’’, 1 June 2013
  9. "Sheffield is fertile soil for aspiring filmmakers". The Independent, 24 June 2015.
  10. Atkin, Mark (6 July 2012). From the Sea to the Land Beyond (Video). Sheffield: TEDx Talks via YouTube.
  11. Kelly Anderson, Animal Planet comes on board “Walking the Nile", realscreen.com, 20 December 2013, retrieved 17 January 2014
  12. "Doc/Fest: VR projects highlight migrant crisis". Screen Daily, 13 June 2016 | By Tom Grater
  13. " Sheffield ’16: Inside the Alternate Realities Summit". RealScreen, By Manori Ravindran, June 13, 2016
  14. "Sheffield Doc/Fest boss sets out vision". Screen Daily, 5 November 2015 | By Chris Curtis