Martin Smith (documentarian)

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Martin Smith
Martin Smith Photo.jpg
Martin Smith in New York City (2007)
Born (1949-01-28) January 28, 1949 (age 74)
South Pasadena, California, U.S.
Alma mater New York University Tisch School of the Arts (BFA, 1975) [1]
Occupation(s)Director, Writer, Producer, Correspondent
SpouseMarcela Gaviria (2012–present)
Website RainMedia.net

Martin Smith (born January 28, 1949) is a producer, writer, director and correspondent. [2] 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.

Contents

Early life and education

Smith was born January 28, 1949, and raised on a citrus farm in Riverside, California until his family moved to Los Angeles when he was ten. He studied Comparative Literature at Brown University and has a BFA (1975) from the Institute of Film & Television at the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University. [1]

Personal life

He lives in New York City with his wife and producing partner Marcela Gaviria of Bogotá, Colombia. [3] He has five children and six grandchildren.

Career

In his 40 years producing and reporting, Martin Smith has covered the world: from revolution in Central America and the fall of communism in Russia, to the rise of Al Qaeda and the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen to the inside story of the global financial meltdown. Smith was among the first journalists to investigate Col. Oliver North's clandestine network and one of the first western reporters to investigate the emergence of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda network.

Smith began his career at CBS News as a film editor in 1976 and in 1982 directed and wrote his first documentary, "Guatemala", which won both a George Polk Award for Investigative Journalism and an Emmy from the Academy of Television Art & Sciences. In 1983, Smith moved to PBS where he produced for the PBS science series NOVA and for FRONTLINE. In 1986 he produced "Who's Running This War" for FRONTLINE and won his second George Polk award. In 1989 he was executive producer of "Inside Gorbachev's USSR" with Hedrick Smith, winning a third Polk award and DuPont Columbia Gold Baton. In 1990, he was hired as a senior producer at FRONTLINE responsible for editorial supervision of over 50 documentaries in four years.

Between 1994 and 1998, Smith worked with Peter Jennings, the ABC News anchor, as a senior producer and oversaw a series of documentary specials for ABC's Peter Jennings Reporting unit, including "Hiroshima: Why the Bomb was Dropped", recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award in 1995 and the George Foster Peabody award.

In 1998 Smith founded RAIN Media, an independent production company, which has produced nearly 100 hours of programming for FRONTLINE, including: "The Terrorist and the Superpower", which was produced three years before the attacks on the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon. In the three months following 9/11, Smith produced in short time seminal films on the genesis of the attacks – "Looking for Answers" (2001), and "Saudi Time Bomb?" (2001). The Alfred I. Dupont jurors awarded Smith with his second Gold Baton and said of the body of work: "the series never flinches from showing why terrorist groups harbor such hate for America and includes people whose attitudes toward the United States are undoubtedly offensive to many viewers. Yet all of the programs are balanced and never sensationalized."

Smith continued reporting on Al Qaeda in subsequent years. In the trilogy, "In Search of Al Qaeda", (2002), "Return of the Taliban" (2006) and "Obama's War" (2008), Smith twice interviewed President Pervez Musharaff on Pakistan's duplicitous Afghanistan policy. This work had a major impact on US policy at the time, revealing Pakistan's double dealing. Excerpts from "Return of the Taliban" were used by US commander Karl Eikenberry in high level briefings of Bush administration officials. Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Smith also produced four films on Iraq for FRONTLINE: "Gangs of Iraq" (2007), "Private Warriors" (2005), "Beyond Baghdad" (2004) and "Truth, War and Consequences" (2003).

Smith also has extensively covered business and finance. Notably "HEAT" about how international business leaders are reacting to calls for carbon reduction in the face of climate change, "The Madoff Affair", an investigation into the world's biggest Ponzi scheme, and "Money, Power and Wall Street" about the causes of the global financial crisis. Most recently, Smith completed "The Untouchables" which examined the Justice Department's failure to hold Wall Street bankers accountable for mortgage fraud in the run-up to the 2008 collapse. "The Untouchables" sparked an enormous reaction after its initial airing. Two Senators, citing Smith's interview with a senior Justice Department official in the documentary, demanded that Attorney General Eric Holder explain the department's position regarding not investigating big banks for alleged crimes for fear of collateral consequences. Several US attorneys' offices have screened the film and redoubled their efforts to investigate cases of fraud on Wall Street.

"Money, Power and Wall Street" won Smith his fourth George Polk award.

In recent years, Smith has returned to the Middle East and produced "The Rise of ISIS," "Life in Baghdad," "Inside Assad's Syria," "Confronting ISIS," "Inside Yemen," "Bitter Rivals: Iran and Saudi Arabia" and "The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia."

In 2020, Smith produced, wrote and directed "The Virus: What Went Wrong?" for FRONTLINE with producing partner Marcela Gaviria.

Selected filmography

[4] [5]

Awards and honors

[6]

Emmy

Writers Guild of America

The George Foster Peabody Award

Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award

Gold Baton

  • "Inside Gorbachev's USSR" (1990)
  • "Hunting bin Laden" (2002)
  • "Looking for Answers" (2002)
  • "Saudi Time Bomb?" (2002)
  • "Bitter Rivals: Iran and Saudi Arabia" (2019)

Silver Baton

  • "Truth War and Consequences" - (2003)
  • "The United States of Secrets" (2015)

George Polk Award

The Overseas Press Club Awards

Prix Italia Award

Nancy Dickerson Whitehead Award for Excellence in Reporting on Drug and Alcohol Problems

Society of Environmental Journalists' Award

Career honors

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References

Citations

  1. 1 2 "Writers Guild Awards to Tisch Alumni" Archived 2014-08-26 at the Wayback Machine , NYU, 2010
  2. ↑ Weiss, Joanna (2009-10-13). "Policy Reality Collide In Obama's War". The Boston Globe.
  3. ↑ Marcela Gaviria PBS. Retrieved: 2018-02-21.
  4. ↑ "RAINMedia Films".
  5. ↑ "FRONTLINE". PBS.
  6. ↑ "RAINMedia Awards".
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