About
I have worked for over fifteen years as a location sound recordist, camera operator, multi-format video editor and production manager producing films for a range of international charities, agencies and the arts sector including the Ford Foundation, United Nations, European Union, DFID, UK Aid, Save the Children, Amnesty International, Friends of the Earth and the Environmental Investigation Agency. My experience also includes broadcast, commercials and corporate, ranging from events, promos, channel idents, glossy celebrity portraits, behind the scenes to feature length documentaries for clients such as the BBC, British Film Council, Paramount, Essential Cinema, National Geographic, Discovery, Arte, Netflix, Saatchi & Saatchi, Ignite Channel and Sky Arts.
Much of my work, especially with Handcrafted Films and If Not Us Then Who concerns communicating the stories of indigenous and traditional peoples. This work has taken me to some unique corners of the world, filming in often difficult and challenging locations be it the rainforests of South East Asia, Central and South America as well as West and Central Africa. I have worked in an expandingly diverse array of settings: following shamans in a remote archipelago of islands in the Indian Ocean, interviewing political refugees in safe houses on the Thai-Burma border during the Saffron Revolution, filming in the cockpit of Air France’s last surviving Concorde, climbing volcanoes and glaciers in Iceland, documenting the lives of Mediterranean Salt Farmers, recording the world’s greatest drummers or following civil rights campaigners through war torn Liberia and the Congo.
Most recently I have been helping manage and cultivate a chain of international road-show events, screenings and photographic exhibitions for If Not Us Then Who, which has seen the stories of indigenous peoples and their struggles shown to a global audience. The five year campaign has so far produced 30 award-winning films, which have been screened at 300 events in over 20 countries. So far these films have reached more than 15 million people online.
Recent clients have included Paramount, BBC Studios, BBC TWO, BAFTA, Wall to Wall, Netflix, Right Angle Films, MPG Media, Anglo Films, BT, Sharp Cookies, Sugarland Productions, Rough Cut Productions, British Film Council, TigerLilly Productions and Essential Cinema.
In 2019 along with my colleagues in our small talented production team we won the Royal Television Society Award for the series The Art of Drumming (Wall to Wall Media for Sky Arts).
‘A stand out piece of programming, presenting the familiar in a wholly new way without missing a beat”
Most recent work has been two productions with BBC TWO, a 60-minute documentary ‘Paloma Faith - As I Am’ and the 6-part series ‘Life in Ten Pictures’. I am currently working on a feature length documentary about the History of Disco with Nile Rodgers for Paramount as well as a biography of Black British popular music told through the personal story of Pauline Black for Sky Arts.
Links to work:
www.https://vimeo.com/timlewisfilms
www.https://soundcloud.com/timlewis77