Type | Film production company |
---|---|
Industry | Documentary films, feature films, independent films |
Founders | Nick Francis and Marc Francis |
Headquarters | United Kingdom |
Website | www |
Speakit Films is a British film production company established in 2004 by writer, director and producer team Nick Francis and Marc J. Francis.
The company is best known for the award-winning 2006 Sundance hit Black Gold and the acclaimed BBC, ARTE and VPRO co-production When China Met Africa . Their work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, [1] the Channel 4 British Documentary Film Foundation, [2] the UK Film Council, [3] CNC and EU Media Fund.
Speakit's films have been released in cinemas and on television in over 40 countries (e.g.: BBC, [4] Channel 4, Arte France, [5] PBS, NHK, Al-Jazeera, NRK, SVT, VPRO, [6] YLE, National Geographic and SABC). [7]
In addition to producing feature documentaries, Speakit makes short films and works with organizations to help them tell their own story.
The VPRO is a Dutch public broadcaster that is part of the Dutch public broadcasting system. It was founded in 1926 as a liberal Protestant radio station. In the 1950s and 1960s, it gradually became social liberal rather than Protestant, and the original meaning of the acronym was eventually dropped.
Nicholas Broomfield is an English documentary film director. His self-reflective style has been regarded as influential to many later filmmakers. In the early 21st century, he began to use non-actors in scripted works, which he calls "Direct Cinema". His output ranges from studies of entertainers to political works such as examinations of South Africa before and after the end of apartheid and the rise of the black-majority government of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress party.
Warp Films is an independent film and television production company based in Sheffield & London, UK.
Jon Blair, CBE, is a South African-born British writer, film producer, and director of documentary films, drama, and comedy.
Together TV is a British free-to-air television channel owned by The Community Channel, a community benefit society. The channel targets a women's audience aged 40 to 60, with programming related to health and wellness, hobbies, and creativity.
Bonnie Greer, OBE FRSL is an American-British playwright, novelist, critic and broadcaster, who has lived in the UK since 1986. She has appeared as a panellist on television programmes such as Newsnight Review and Question Time and has served on the boards of several leading arts organisations, including the British Museum, the Royal Opera House and the London Film School. She is Vice President of the Shaw Society. She is former Chancellor of Kingston University in Kingston upon Thames, London. In July 2022 she was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Ozwald Boateng, OBE is an English fashion designer, best known for his trademark twist on classic tailoring and bespoke styles.
Participant Media, LLC is an American film production company founded in 2004 by Jeffrey Skoll, dedicated to entertainment intended to spur social change. The company finances and co-produces film and television content, as well as digital entertainment through its subsidiary SoulPancake, which the company acquired in 2016.
Christopher Riley is a British writer, broadcaster and film maker specialising in the history of science. He has a PhD from Imperial College, University of London where he pioneered the use of digital elevation models in the study of mountain range geomorphology and evolution. He makes frequent appearances on British television and radio, broadcasting mainly on space flight, astronomy and planetary science and was Visiting Professor of science and media at the University of Lincoln between 2011 and 2021.
Robert Beckford is a British academic theologian and currently Professor of Black Theology at The Queen's Foundation, whose documentaries for both the BBC and Channel 4 have caused debate among the Christian and British religious community.
Black Gold is a 2006 documentary film that follows the efforts of an Ethiopian coffee union manager as he travels the world to obtain a better price for his workers' coffee beans. The film was directed and produced by Marc James Francis and Nick Francis from Speakit Films, and co-produced by Christopher Hird. It premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.
Thomas Allen Harris is a critically acclaimed, interdisciplinary artist who explores family, identity, and spirituality in a participatory practice. Since 1990, Harris has remixed archives from multiple origins throughout his work, challenging hierarchy within historical narratives through the use of pioneering documentary and research methodologies that center vernacular image and collaboration. He is currently working on a new television show, Family Pictures USA, which takes a radical look at neighborhoods and cities of the United States through the lens of family photographs, collaborative performances, and personal testimony sourced from their communities..
Mischa Scorer is a British documentary film-maker.
Femke Wolting is a Dutch independent new media producer.
When China Met Africa is a 2010 documentary film by Nick Francis and Marc James Francis. Set on the front line of Chinaʼs foray into Africa, it follows the lives of a Chinese farmer, a road builder, and the Zambian trade minister.
John Dennis Liu is a Chinese American film-maker and ecologist. He is also a researcher at several institutions. In January 2015 John was named Visiting Fellow at Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO) of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. John is also Ecosystem Ambassador for the Commonland Foundation based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. In 2017 John Liu founded Ecosystem Restoration Camps, a worldwide movement that aims to restore damaged ecosystems on a large scale.
Stevan Riley is a British film director, producer, editor and writer. He was educated at the University of Oxford, where he studied Modern History. His films include Blue Blood (2006); Fire in Babylon (2010); Everything or Nothing (2012); and Listen to Me Marlon (2015). Stevan went to school in Dover, Kent, Dover Grammar for Boys.
Marc James Francis is a British film director, producer and documentary cinematographer.
Catherine Meyburgh is a South African film editor, filmmaker, artist and project designer.
Mette Hoffman Meyer is a Danish documentary film producer. Based in Copenhagen, Denmark she is CEO of The Why Foundation, cofounder with an American-born British film director. Mette was previously head of documentaries and co-productions at Denmark’s public service broadcasting cooperation, DR, and commissioning editor of the factual series Dokumania on DR channel 2.