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Jamie Doran
Producer/Director/Author
Doran has worked at the highest levels of television film production over the past
22 years, with many of his films leading series both nationally and internationally.
In that time, those films have been broadcast on virtually every major channel throughout
the world.
An award-winning documentary film-maker, Doran spent over seven years at BBC Television
before establishing his independent television company. His most recent productions
include 2001: The Making of a Myth, an analysis of Kubrickís epic, and The
Android Prophecy which studied the link between feature film director fantasy
and science reality. He is presently involved in the re-establishment of feature
film and television production in Afghanistan.
Some of his achievements in the international arena include what was widely described
as the definitive film of the disappearedí in Chile; the release of over 500
political prisoners in Romania; an expose of the brutal regime in Burma; the extraordinary
and controversial biography of the first human being in space, described by Victor
Lewis Smith, critic for The London Evening Standard as "television at its
finest", and the true story of a contemporary Dr Zhivago saga in Russia,
centred on the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
On average, his films are seen in around 35 countries and he is also an internationally
published author.
Amongst major
credits: (original broadcasters only)
The Thawing
of a Cold War Warrior - BBC/Discovery/FujiSankei
A truly dramatic love story
within an extraordinary political framework. General Ivan Dmitrevich Yershov was
Commander of Soviet Ground Forces which crushed the Prague Spring in 1968. He was
a man destined for the very top of the Soviet military hierarchy, yet gave it all
up to save the life of the daughter he loved - even though this meant losing her
to the enemy. The film culminates as he returns to Prague to apologise personally
to Alexander Dubcek.
Single Pistol
Shot - BBC/Discovery
Life on Death Row: this
film examines the life of two inmates. One has committed a crime of passion (killing
his wifes lover in a mad fit of jealousy) and the other raped and murdered two young
girls. For the inmates, their only contact with the outside world is the prison warden,
a man of unexpectedly deep humanity.
Skeletons
Have Names - C4
A film which follows three
sisters on a journey home to Chile in search of their brother who had been tortured
and ëdisappearedí during the Pinochet coup against Allende. A tragic and moving tale,
this film was acclaimed worldwide as the definitive comment on the plight of thousands
of students and young protestors who were never seen again.
The August
Kings - C4
The first film involving
the men who overthrew Mikhail Gorbachev.. Why did they do it? What was their motive?
Did they regret their actions?
Burma: The
Final Stand - C4/France 2
When Burma (or Myanmar)
is mentioned in the world press these days, invariably a comment is made on the democratic
election victory in 1990. Doran was the only foreign film-maker to enter the country
(surreptitiously) in the weeks prior to the election in order to expose junta plans
to corrupt the election process. Despite a threat from the regime that he would be
hanged if caught, using hidden cameras he brought the story to worldwide attention,
forcing the regime to invite neutral observers to oversee the elections.
Alec The Pole - BBC
A moving film of an old
soldier who had lived quietly in Scotland after the war, claiming to be a veteran
of the Polish Army. At his real home in the Ukraine, Alec Krusnenko had been reported
missing, believed killed in action, fighting against the Germans. He returns to discover
a monument has been erected bearing his name alongside other fallen heroes of the
Red Army. But Alec had been hiding a terrible secret: he had not fought for the Soviet
Army at all.......he had joined the Nazi SS.
Technology
Wars - C4
The technology battle between
East and West: how America and the Soviet Union fought for superiority in the field
of super-computers in the battle to dominate space.
Out of Order
- seven-part series for ITV network
Doran edited this series
of primetime programmes which fought injustice: populist programming, averaging 8
million viewers each week in the U.K.
Backstreet
Betting - C4
An immensely successful
film which told how the Italian Mafia had infiltrated the illegal gambling markets
in Britain. Doran spent three months in hiding following threats related to this
project.
The Red Bomb
- three-part series for Discovery U.S..
The definitive filmed history
of Soviet nuclear weapons, this series has been acclaimed by scientists throughout
the world. It shows how, in less than a decade after the enormous destruction of
the war against Hitler, the USSR had succeeded in becoming the second superpower.
All of the surviving Russian scientists and spies agreed to take part, including
Anatoly Yatskov who masterminded the theft of atomic secrets from the Manhattan Project.
Yatskov agreed to reveal his role for the first time, despite being desperately ill
with cancer. He died two weeks after his interview.
The Honeytrap
- BBC/France 3/Speigel (Ger)/A&E
A story of love, despair
and manipulation; a gigantic struggle between East and West in which the pawns were
young women forced by the KGB to seduce secrets from foreign businessmen and diplomats
to satisfy its insatiable desire for information.
Wasps &
Witches - Canal+/DOCSTAR
War is the prerogative of
men, or so most men believe. But Wasps & Witches tells a forgotten story of the
astonishing bravery of women pilots in the Second World War.
Starman -
BBC/Canal +
Seen in over sixty countries
worldwide, Starman relates the moving tale of the young son of a peasant who became
the first human being in space. This film, and the book written to accompany it,
tells the extraordinary true story behind the legend of Yuri Gagarin
City of Murder
& Mayhem - ITV network and worldwide
Completed recently, this
film portrays life on the edge of death in Moscow. We follow the exploits of two
men: one a banker, and the other from SOBR, the Russian Militias enforcement wing.
This film has already been requested by over thirty countries.
2001: The
Making of a Myth - C4
The first television documentary
to explore the making of and thinking behind one of the worldís most famous films:
Stanley Kubrickís sci-fi epic: 2001: A Space Odyssey, presented and narrated
by James Cameron (Titanic, Terminator, Aliens etc) and featuring all major
surviving figures, including Sir Arthur C. Clarke.
(many more films available) |