Witness | |
---|---|
Presented by | Former: Ghida Fakhry (2010–2011) Former: Rageh Omaar (2006–10) |
Original release | |
Network | Al Jazeera English |
Release | November 2006 – present |
Witness is the flagship documentary television program that airs on Al Jazeera English. The program showcases documentaries commissioned by independent filmmakers around the world. The films focus on stories that receive less international coverage and "people at the margins of society." [1]
Witness was one of the first programmes on Al Jazeera English and has been airing since the channel's inception in November 2006. The primary broadcast windows are Sundays for their half-hour programmes and Wednesdays for their hour-long programmes with repeats appearing throughout the week. [2] It is also available online.
The show has won multiple documentary awards including the Peabody and the International Emmy and been nominated for many others including an Academy Award, One World, Rory Peck Trust and Gierson. The programme team has also served as the creative staff behind other Al Jazeera English series including Viewfinder Latin America (2012-2015) and Viewfinder Asia (2012-2014), Artscape (2009–2014), Wildlife Warzone (2013) and in 2014, Rebel Architecture.
Witness premiered in November 2006 when Al Jazeera English launched globally. It was initially presented by Rageh Omaar, [3] [4] Fakhry took over briefly as presenter in 2010 for one year. [5]
It is one of the few programmes that makes documentaries available worldwide on all media platforms. The topics covered by the series includes stories of inspiration, empowerment, creativity and a deeper plunge into communities that are otherwise excluded from the global conversation. This includes stories on conflict, the environment, women's rights, the arts, economic equity and social justice. The core of each story is a reflection of how global events affect local communities and the people who live there.
In 2016 Witness was part of the team nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Documentary Short for the film, Chau, Beyond The Lines.[ citation needed ] In 2015, "Witness" won an International Emmy for the film, Miners Shot Down. This story is about miners in South Africa who rise up to seek a better living and working conditions.[ citation needed ] In 2013 Witness was awarded the Peabody Award for the film, Sheikh Jarrah, My Neighbourhood. This documentary tells the story of Palestinians in East Jerusalem who face eviction and find unexpected allies to the cause. Witness' coverage of the Red Mosque in Islamabad shortly before a government siege garnered an International Emmy Award nomination in 2008. [6] A special on two schools in the West Bank under Israeli occupation, Return to Nablus, received an International Emmy nomination in 2009. [7]
16 other documentaries featured on Witness have won awards at various international film festivals. [8]
Jon Blair, CBE, is a South African-born British writer, film producer, and director of documentary films, drama, and comedy.
Al Jazeera English is a 24-hour English-language news channel operating under Al Jazeera Media Network, which is partially funded by the government of Qatar. In a bid to broaden its reach, Al Jazeera introduced an English-language division in 2006. It is the first global English-language news channel to be headquartered in the Middle East.
ITVS is a service in the United States which funds and presents documentaries on public television through distribution by PBS and American Public Television, new media projects on the Internet, and the weekly series Independent Lens on PBS. Aside from Independent Lens, ITVS funded and produced films for more than 40 television hours per year on the PBS series POV, Frontline, American Masters and American Experience. Some ITVS programs are produced along with organizations like Latino Public Broadcasting and KQED.
Jamie Doran is an Irish-Scottish independent documentary filmmaker and former BBC producer. He founded the award-winning company Clover Films, based in Windsor, in 2008. He is also president of Datchet Village Football Club, which he founded in 1986. Doran's films have been shown worldwide, and on series such as BBC's Panorama, Channel 4's Dispatches, Channel 4's True Stories, PBS's Frontline, Al Jazeera, ABC's Four Corners, Japan's NHK, Germany's ZDF NDR/ARD and Denmark's DR.
Fionnuala Sweeney is an Irish anchorwoman and reporter. Based at CNN's headquarters in Atlanta and at CNN London, Fionnuala was also the solo host of the Eurovision Song Contest 1993 from Millstreet, County Cork.
Ghida Fakhry is a Lebanese-British journalist. She was a lead anchor for the global news channel Al Jazeera English at its launch in Washington D.C., and was later one of the primary anchors at the network's headquarters in Doha. She was also the host of Witness, a documentary program.
Alan Fisher is a Scottish broadcast journalist and war correspondent.
The Stream is a current affairs discussion programme that airs on Al Jazeera English.
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.
Vanguard is a television documentary series that was broadcast on the now defunct Current TV television network. Vanguard reported on such issues as the environment, drugs, and the effects of globalization and conflict.
Bringing Down A Dictator is a 56-minute documentary film by Steve York about the nonviolent defeat of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic. It focuses on the contributions of the student-led Otpor! movement. The film originally aired on national PBS in March 2002. It was narrated by Martin Sheen and won the George Foster Peabody Award.
Christof Putzel is an American journalist and correspondent for Travel Channel. He is a former correspondent for Al Jazeera America's news magazine America Tonight and Current TV's investigative documentary series, Vanguard.
Sebastian Walker is an investigative journalist and an Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist who is currently a correspondent and Middle-East bureau chief for Vice on Showtime and VICE News.
101 East is a multi award-winning weekly television programme, broadcast by Al Jazeera English, that produces in-depth investigative documentaries from across Asia and the Pacific. The show launched in 2006 and operates out of Al Jazeera's Asia bureau in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Al Jazeera America was an American pay television news channel owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network. The channel was launched on August 20, 2013, to compete with CNN, HLN, MSNBC, Fox News, and in certain markets RT America. It was Al Jazeera's second entry into the U.S. television market, after the launch of beIN Sports in 2012. The channel, which had persistently low ratings, announced in January 2016 that it would close on 12 April 2016, citing the "economic landscape".
Laila Al-Arian is an American broadcast journalist for the Al Jazeera Media Network. She is the executive producer for the Al Jazeera English documentary series Fault Lines. She co-authored Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians with Chris Hedges. She is married to American scholar of Islamic studies, Jonathan A. C. Brown.
The Al Jazeera Investigative Unit is a specialized investigative journalism team within Al Jazeera. The unit is known for producing in-depth investigative reports and documentaries on a wide range of global issues, including politics, human rights, corruption, environmental issues, and more.
TRT World is a Turkish public broadcaster which broadcasts in English 24 hours a day and is operated by the TRT and based in the Ulus quarter of Ankara. It provides worldwide news and current affairs focusing on Turkey, Europe, Africa, and Western and Southern Asia. In addition to its headquarters based in Ankara, TRT World has broadcasting centres and studios in Washington, D.C. and London. It is a member of the Association for International Broadcasting.
Jon Shenk is an Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated documentary film director and director of photography, known for his films Lead Me HomeAthlete A, An Inconvenient Sequel, Audrie & Daisy,The Island President, Lost Boys of Sudan. He is the co-founder, with his wife Bonni Cohen, of Actual Films, a documentary film company based in San Francisco, CA. He co-directed and photographed Lead Me Home which premiered in 2021 at the Telluride Film Festival, was acquired by Netflix, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2022.